UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA 
AT  LOS  ANGELES 


THE 


INTER-OCEANIC    CANAL 


AND 


THE  MONROE  DOCTRINE. 


"AT  AN  EPOCH  WHICH  WE  MAY  CALL  NEAR,  SINCE  IT  CONCERNS 
THE  LIFE  OP  A  PEOPLE,  THE  ANGLO-AMERICANS  WILL  COVER  ALL 
THE  IMMENSE  TERRITORY  COMPRISED  BETWEEN  THE  POLAR  ICE  AND 
THE  TROPICS— THEY  WILL  SPREAD  FROM  THE  SHORES  OF  THE  AT- 
LANTIC OCEAN  EVEN  TO  THE  COASTS  OF  THE  SOUTHERN  SEA." 

DE  TOCQUEVILLE. 


NEW  YORK  : 

G.     P.     PUTNAM'S     SONS, 
182  FIFTH  AVENUE. 


COPYRIGHT 

1880 
By  G.  P.  PUTNAM'S  SONS 


TC 
11*5 


CONTENTS. 


PAGE 

INTRODUCTION 5 

tO      THE    COMMERCIAL    IMPORTANCE    OF    THE    INTER- 
OCEANIC  CANAL,  AND  THE  HISTORY  OF  SOME  OF 
^V4  THE  SCHEMES  FOR  BUILDING  IT 17 

THE  AUTHOR  AND  THE  ORIGIN  OF  THE  MONROE 

DOCTRINE 41 

THE  MONROE  DOCTRINE 43 

!  '  THE  GENERAL  FOREIGN  POLICY  OF  THE  UNITED 
^  STATES 68 

^J     COLONIZATION  AND  PROVINCIAL  POSSESSIONS  CON- 
^  SIDERED  IN  EELATION  TO  THE  INTERESTS  OF  THE 

UNITED  STATES 90 

THE  UNITED  STATES  SHOULD  CONTROL  THE  INTER- 
OCEANIC  CANAL.  .  106 


208103 


INTRODUCTION. 


THE  appearance  upon  the  Isthmus  of  Darien,  at 
the  outset  of  the  year  1880,  of  M.  Ferdinand  de 
Lesseps,  the  renowned  French  engineer  and  diplo- 
matist, to  whom  the  nineteenth  century  owes  the 
inception  and  completion  of  the  Suez  Canal,  has 
startled  the  thinking  people  of  this  country  into  a 
sudden  but  most  desirable  state  of  anxiety  as  to  the 
effects  likely  to  be  produced  upon  the  interests,  the 
prestige,  and  the  prosperity  of  the  United  States  by 
the  opening,  under  other  auspices  than  ours,  of  a 
great  waterway  between  the  Atlantic  and  the  Paci- 
fic oceans.  Though  the  question  of  opening  such 
a  waterway  has  occupied  the  minds  of  American 
statesmen  and  of  American  engineers  at  intervals, 
ever  since  the  foundation  of  the  republic,  and 
though  it  has  of  late  years  acquired  an  unprece- 
dented gravity  and  importance  for  the  American 


Q  THE  INTER-OCEANIC  CANAL. 

people,  through  the  establishment  of  our  vast  em- 
pire on  the  Pacific,  and  the  immense  development 
of  our  internal  railway  system  between  the  Great 
Lakes  and  the  Gulf,  it  has  been  so  much  obscured 
by  exciting  domestic  issues,  now  happily  coming  to 
an  end,  that  for  Americans  of  the  present  genera- 
tion it  may  be  treated  as  a  question  almost  abso- 
lutely new.  It  cannot  be  intelligently  considered 
without  quickening  the  enlightened  patriotism  of 
the  American  people,  by  making  it  more  than  ever 
apparent  how  vitally  important  it  is  to  the  pros- 
perity of  every  State  and  every  section  of  our  be- 
loved Union,  that  the  primacy  and  predominance  on 
this  continent  of  the  united  republic  should  be  jeal- 
ously guarded  against  invasion  from  any  quarter, 
no  matter  under  what  pretext  or  in  what  form  at- 
tempted. 

In  considering  this  question,  as  in  considering  all 
questions  which  arise  out  of  or  affect  the  relations 
between  the  United  States  and  the  powers  of  Eu- 
rope, it  must  always  be  borne  in  mind  that  but  little 
more  than  fifty  years  have  elapsed  since  the  United 
States  took  their  place  definitely  in  the  system  of 
Christendom  as  a  power  to  be  "counted  with,"  to 
be  considered,  and  to  be  respected.  As  we  shall 
hereafter  see,  it  was  not  until  the  ministers  of  the 
Holy  Alliance,  after  the  death  at  St.  Helena  of  Na- 
poleon I.,  had  undertaken  to  consolidate  throughout 


THE  INTER-OCEANIC  CANAL.  7 

the  world  the  system  of  government  by  divine  right, 
that  England,  in  her  own  interest  quite  as  much  as 
in  the  interests  of  liberty,  called  upon  the  govern- 
ment of  the  United  States  to  proclaim  the  close  on 
this  continent  of  the  period  of  European  colonial 
experiments.  The  response  of  the  American  gov- 
ernment to  that  call  gave  birth  to  what  has  'ever 
since  been  known  as  the  Monroe  doctrine ;  and  the 
unyielding  assertion  of  that  doctrine  against  every 
attempt  to  evade  or  to  impair  its  force  has  ever 
since,  with  reason,  been  regarded  by  American 
statesmen  of  all  shades  of  political  opinion  as  es- 
sential to  the  position,  the  prestige,  and  the  pros- 
perity of  the  United  States. 

It  will  be  shown  in  the  course  of  this  treatise  that 
any  attempt  to  construct  an  inter-oceanic  canal  be- 
tween the  Atlantic  and  the  Pacific,  under  European 
auspices  and  with  European  capital,  must  inevitably 
lead  to  a  very  serious  invasion  of  the  position,  to  a 
very  serious  assault  upon  the  prestige,  and  to  very 
mischievous  consequences  to  the  prosperity  of  the 
United  States.  Had  any  one  or  more  of  the  inde- 
pendent republics,  called  into  existence  by  the  dis- 
ruption and  destruction,  during  the  first  quarter  of 
this  century,  of  the  vast  American  empire  of  Spain, 
acquired  strength  and  stability  enough  to  make 
the  construction  possible  of  an  inter-oceanic  canal 
through  Spanish  -  American  territory  by  Spanish- 


8  THE  INTER-OCEANIC  CANAL. 

American  citizens  with  Spanish- American  funds,  all 
that  it  would  be  seemly  or  necessary  for  the  govern- 
ment of  the  United  States  to  do  in  regard  to  such  a 
canal,  doubtless,  might  be  shown  to  be  that  it  should 
secure  for  the  citizens  and  the  commerce  of  the 
United  States  the  free  and  unrestricted  use  of  the 
facilities  of  such  a  canal,  on  at  least  equal  terms 
with  the  citizens  and  the  commerce  of  all  other  na- 
tions. But  no  one  pretends  that  this  is  the  case ; 
and  the  conditions  under  which  alone  any  canal  en- 
terprise either  has  been  attempted,  or  is  likely  to 
be  attempted  in  our  time  by  European  capitalists  in 
Spanish  America,  involve  the  virtual  surrender  to 
such  capitalists,  or  to  the  governments  of  the  coiin- 
tries  to  which  they  may  belong,  of  the  independence 
of  the  State  or  of  the  States  through  the  territory  of 
which  the  canal  projected  is  to  be  carried.  In  other 
words,  no  canal  enterprise  in  Spanish- American  ter- 
ritory can  be  planned,  organized,  and  earned  out  by 
European  projectors  and  capitalists,  without  prac- 
tically reopening  on  this  continent  that  period  of 
European  colonial  experiments  which  the  United 
States,  under  President  Monroe,  distinctly  and  sol- 
emnly declared  to  be  closed  forever.  It  is  vital  to 
our  greatness,  and  our  honor  as  a  nation,  that  this 
declaration  shall  be  maintained.  We  do  not  doubt 
that  it  will  be  so  maintained,  at  any  cost,  by  the 
people  of  the  United  States. 


THE  INTER-OCEANIC  CANAL.  Q 

—  The  idea  of  opening  a  waterway  from  the  Atlantic, 
the  ocean  of  Europe,  to  the  great  Southern  Sea,  the 
ocean  of  Asia,  of  "Ormus  and  of  Ind,"  may  be  said 
to  be  coeval  with  the  earliest  enterprises  of  Euro- 
pean colonization  in  the  New  World.  It  was  in 
quest  of  such  a  waterway  that  Columbus  sailed  from 
Palos  in  1492  ;  and  Cortez  planned  the  construction 
of  such  a  waterway  during  his  visit  to  the  Isthmus 
of  Tehuantepec,  forty  years  afterward.  The  "  Se- 
cret of  the  Strait,"  'was  the  goad  which  drove  so 
many  seamen  from  all  the  lands  of  Europe  west- 
ward through  all  the  earlier  years  of  the  sixteenth 
century,  till  Magellan  found  an  answer  to  it  far  to 
the  stormy  south. 

The  idea  of  facilitating  commercial  intercourse 
between  Europe  and  the  East  by  means  of  a  canal 
across  the  Isthmus  of  Suez,  had  occurred  ages  before 
to  the  Greek  rulers  of  Egypt,  and  the  statement  is 
reasonably  well  authenticated  that  a  small  canal 
was  made  across  that  isthmus  about  600  years  B.C., 
and  remained  in  use  until  about  the  year  A.D.  800. 
The  history  of  that  ancient  work,  however,  is  so  ob- 
scure that  we  are  without  any  data  for  determining 
with  any  accuracy  how  much  the  commerce  of  an- 
tiquity may  have  been  modified  and  benefited  by 
the  first  Suez  Canal.  It  is  certain,  however,  that 
with  the  rise  of  the  Turkish  and  the  Saracenic 
power  it  ceased  to  be  available  to  Europe,  and  when, 


10  THE  INTER-OCEANIC  CANAL 

in  the  fifteenth  century,  Venice  and  other  States  on 
the  Mediterranean  were  seeking  to  extend  their  com- 
merce in  all  directions,  the  discovery  of  a  route  by 
water  to  the  Indies  was  made  a  matter  of  supreme 
importance  to  them  by  the  menacing  growth  of  the 
Ottoman  Empire.  By  the  middle  of  the  fifteenth  cen- 
tury too,  learned  and  thoughtful  men  had  reasoned 
out  the  theory  of  the  spherical  form  of  the  earth. 

Luigi  Pulci,  the  Florentine  poet,  as  early  as  1487, 
wrote : 

"Men  shall  descry  another  hemisphere, 

"  Since  to  one  common  center  all  things  tend  ; 

"  So  Earth  by  curious  mystery  divine 

"  Well  balanced  hangs  amid  the  starry  spheres. 

"  At  our  antipodes  are  cities,  states, 
"  And  thronged  empires,  ne'er  divined  of  yore. 
"  But  see,  the  sun  speeds  on  his  western  path 
"  To  glad  the  nations  with  expected  light." 

Five  years  later,  the  discovery  of  a  continent  be- 
yond the  western  ocean  by  Columbus  startled  the 
world  almost  simultaneously  with  the  discovery  of 
the  Cape  of  Good  Hope,  by  Yasco  da  Gama,  and  the 
dreams  of  the  poet  became  the  facts  of  the  geogra- 
pher. 

The  last  voyage  of  Columbus  was  undertaken  ex- 
pressly to  find  the  strait  into  the  Asian  seas.  After 
much  suffering  he  reached  the  coast  of  Honduras, 
along  which  he  sought  in  vain  a  passage  to  the  East. 


THE  INTER-OCEANIC  CANAL.  H 

It  was  an  unsuccessful  enterprise,  but  there  is  satis- 
faction in  the  thought  that  in  that  last  voyage,  near 
the  sad  close  of  his  eventful  life,  he  sailed  along  the 
shores  of  the  isthmus  through  which,  pierced  as 
it  surely  will  be  by  a  ship  canal,  the  commerce  of 
Europe  with  Asia  will  at  last,  and  in  part  at  least,  be 
interchanged. 

The  Spanish  navigators  after  Columbus  kept  up 
an  active  search  for  a  shorter  route  to  the  Indies. 
"  This  discovery  of  a  strait  into  the  Indian  Ocean," 
says  Prescott,  "  was  the  burden  of  every  order  from 
the  government."  The  discovery  of  a  new  route  to 
India,  "is  the  true  key  to  the  maritime  movements 
of  the  fifteenth  and  the  first  half  of  the  sixteenth 
centuries." 

One  of  the  most  important  results  of  these  Span- 
ish explorations  was  the  discovery  of  the  Pacific 
Ocean  in  1513,  by  the  unfortunate  Balboa.  Geo- 
graphical researches  soon  satisfied  the  Spaniards 
that  no  natural  inter-oceanic  water  channel  existed 
in  those  regions  in  which  they  had  so  diligently 
sought  "the  secret  of  the  Strait."  Their  voyages, 
and  those  made  by  contemporary  Portuguese  and 
English  navigators,  gradually  gave  Europeans  some 
elementary  knowledge  of  both  the  Eastern  and 
Western  continents.  It  was  then  seen  that  al- 
though all  the  regions  of  the  earth  which,  on  ac- 
count of  their  wealth  and  population,  afforded  the 


12  THE  INTER-OCEANIC  CANAL. 

best  materials  for  commerce,  lay  within  the  North- 
em  Hemisphere,  direct  intercourse  by  water  between 
many  of  the  richest  of  these  countries  was  cut  off  by 
the  projection  of  South  America  and  Africa  far  be- 
yond the  equator.  The  narrow  isthmuses  by  which 
these  two  continents  were  joined  to  their  northern 
neighbors  soon  suggested,  however,  the  practicabil- 
ity of  piercing  those  obstructions  by  means  of  arti- 
ficial water  channels. 

Even  before  the  contemporaries  of  Columbus  had 
all  passed  away,  the  longing  for  the  rich  fruits  of 
Eastern  commerce  had  distinctly  presented  to  the 
attention  of  mankind  the  problem  of  an  American 
inter-oceanic  canal — a  problem  which  has,  says  Sum- 
ner,  "  not  only  a  practical  value,  but  an  historic 
grandeur  " — a  problem  which,  after  the  lapse  of  more 
than  three  centuries,  remains  unsolved. 

The  Spaniards  are  entitled  to  the  credit  of  having 
at  a  very  early  day  formed  the  project  of  uniting 
the  harbors  on  opposite  sides  of  the  American  isth- 
mus by  means  of  a  canal  between  the  headwaters  of 
the  streams  flowing  in  opposite  directions  to  the 
Atlantic  and  Pacific.  As  early  as  1528,  Antonio 
Galvao  proposed  to  the  Emperor  Charles  V.  to  open 
a  communication  between  the  oceans  by  the  Isthmus 
of  Panama.  During  the  reign  of  Philip  II.,  the 
authorities  even  went  so  far  as  to  make  plans  and 
surveys  for  carrying  an  inter-oceanic  canal  scheme 


THE  INTER-OCEANIC  CANAL.  13 

into  execution.  But  Spain  was  already  growing 
weak  at  the  extremities  of  her  colossal  empire  ;  the 
filibusters  of  England,  France,  and  Holland  swarmed 
in  the  seas,  and  Philip  forbade  the  execution  of 
the  work.  He  wanted  wisdom  to  perceive  that  the 
control  of  such  an  important  channel  of  commerce 
would  have  given  more  strength  and  durable  pros- 
perity to  his  empire  than  all  the  wealth  of  his  mines 
of  gold  and  silver. 

The  importance  of  the  Isthmian  region,  in  a  com- 
mercial point  of  view,  attracted  the  attention  of 
William  Patterson,  the  founder  of  the  Bank  of 
England,  and  one  of  the  most  remarkable  men  of  his 
age,  toward  the  end  of  the  seventeenth  century,  and 
a  canal  to  be  cut  through  it  was  one  of  the  objects 
of  his  great  but  ill-fated  scheme  of  the  Darien  col- 
ony. The  tragic  termination  of  this  project  is  well 
known.  Lord  Macaulay,  in  his  History  of  England, 
tells  the  story  in  his  most  graphic  style ;  but  al- 
though embellished  with  all  the  charms  of  the  fas- 
cinating rhetoric  of  this  brilliant  historian,  the  nar- 
rative shows  no  adequate  recognition  of  the  wisdom 
and  statesmanship  displayed  in  the  conception  of 
this  colony,  and  it  is  not  too  much  to  say,  that  but 
for  the  purblind  and  jealous  policy  of  King  William 
III.,  Great  Britain  might  have  secured  through 
Patterson,  in  the  closing  years  of  the  seventeenth 
century,  a  colonial  possession  of  more  importance 


14  THE  INTER-OCEANIC  CANAL. 

than  all  the  wide  extended  territory  which  she  now 
owns  in  North  America.  Had  Patterson's  scheme 
been  honestly  supported,  the  British  government 
would  have  acquired  firm  possession  of  the  Ameri- 
can isthmus,  and  with  that  isthmus  in  her  posses- 
sion, she  would,  doubtless,  long  since  have  con- 
structed an  inter-oceanic  canal,  which  might  have 
adjourned  for  long  years  to  come  the  construction  of 
the  canal  of  Suez.  Never  did  a  nation  spurn  a  gift 
so  precious.  The  sanction  of  the  British  govern- 
ment alone  was  wanting  to  insure  success  to  a  colo- 
nial enterprise  which  carried  with  it  all  the  blessings 
of  civilization,  and  the  well-ordered  material,  moral, 
and  social  development  of  Anglo-Saxon  enlightenment 
— an  enterprise  which,  commencing  on  the  narrow 
confines  of  the  Isthmus  of  Darien,  and  spreading  to 
the  neighboring  lands  of  Central  and  South  America, 
might  have  resulted  in  a  success  more  enduring  than 
that  of  the  East  India  Company.  Patterson  looked 
beyond  the  dominion  of  the  isthmus.  His  large 
ambition  included  the  acquisition  of  Cuba  as  a  part 
of  his  comprehensive  plan  for  British  supremacy 
on  this  hemisphere.  His  enlightened  and  sagacious 
views  deserve  the  consideration  of  the  American  peo- 
ple, whose  interest  in  the  regions  which  attracted  his 
enterprising  spirit  is  paramount  now  to  that  of  any 
other  people.  We  have  an  intimation  of  the  wide 
scope  of  his  entire  plan  in  his  own  words,  as  follows : 


THE  INTER-OCEANIC  CANAL.  15 

"The  addition  of  the  port  of  Havana  to  those  \ 
ports  and  passes  of  the  isthmus  will  render  this  de- 
sign altogether  complete. 

' '  Havana  is  capable  of  being  defended  with  five 
or  six  thousand  seasoned  men  ashore,  and  the  situ- 
ation thereof  upon  one  of  the  best  and  greatest  isl- 
ands, not  only  of  America,  but  may  be  in  the  world, 
as  lying  in  the  center  between  the  Northern,  and 
Southern  parts  of  America,  and  thereby  making  a 
pass  of  the  greatest  consequence,  and  a  natural 
bridle  to  all  that  great  inlet  commonly  called  the 
Gulf,  and  no  small  awe  to  the  navigation  of  the 
whole  bay  of  Mexico." 

The  following  passage  from  a  letter  written  by 
this  remarkable  man  presents  a  further  elucidation 
of  his  views : 

"But  if  neither  Britain  singly,  nor  the  maritime 
powers  of  Europe  will  treat  for  Darien,  the  period  is 
not  very  far  distant  when,  instead  of  waiting  for  the 
slow  returns  of  trade,  America  will  seize  the  pass  of 
Darien.  Their  next  move  will  be  to  hold  the  Sand- 
wich Islands.  Stationed  thus  in  the  middle,  on  the 
east  and  on  the  west  sides  of  the  New  World,  the 
English- Americans  will  form  the  most  potent  and 
singular  empire  that  has  appeared,  because  it  will 
consist,  not  in  the  dominion  of  a  part  of  the  land  of 
the  globe,  but  in  the  dominion  of  the  whole  ocean. 
They  can  make  the  tour  of  the  Indian  and  Southern 


16  THE  INTER-OCEANIC  CANAL. 

seas,  collecting  wealth  by  trade  wherever  they 
pass.  During  European  wars,  they  may  have  the 
carrying  trade  of  all.  If  blessed  with  letters  and 
arts,  they  will  spread  civilization  over  the  Universe. 
Then  England,  with  all  her  liberties  and  glory,  may 
be  known  only  as  Egypt  is  now." 

These  are  instructive,  not  to  say  prophetic  words, 
and  may  be  read  with  profit  by  every  American 
citizen  to-day. 


THE  COMMERCIAL  IMPORTANCE  OF    THE   INTER-OCEANIC 

CANAL,    AND    THE    HISTORY    OF    SOME    OF 

THE  SCHEMES  FOR  BUILDING  IT. 


IT  is  foreign  to  the  purposes  of  this  treatise  to  give 
a  detailed  history  of  the  numerous  schemes  devised 
during  the  past  350  years  for  the  establishment  of 
inter-oceanic  communication  across  the  American 
isthmus. 

A  chronological  list  of  the  most  important  of  these 
plans  is  given  in  an  appendix,  but  a  rapid  review  of 
the  subject  here  will  show  how  often  and  how  de- 
servedly it  has  occupied  public  attention. 

The  writings  of  Humboldt  were  influential  in  di- 
recting attention  to  this  great  work  at  the  beginning 
of  the  present  century.  His  personal  explorations 
vividly  impressed  him  with  the  benefit  the  com- 
merce of  all  nations  would  derive  from  an  inter- 
oceanic  canal;  and  also  with  the  practicability  of 

the  enterprise. 

2  17 


18  THE  INTER-OCEANIC  CANAL. 

In  his  work  on  "New  Spain,"  the  relative  merits 
of  the  Tehuantepec,  Nicaragua,  Panama,  and  Atrato 
routes  are  carefully  discussed,  and  although  of 
necessity  he  studied  only  in  the  light  of  such  gen- 
eral and  unsatisfactory  data  as  could  be  obtained  by 
an  intelligent  traveler,  unaided  in  most  cases  by  the 
surveys  of  engineers,  the  elements  of  the  problem 
are  presented  with  rare  intelligence,  and  the  fact 
that  those  whose  subsequent  studies  have  been  most 
thorough,  have  the  highest  admiration  for  the  ac- 
curacy of  his  information  and  the  soundness  of  his 
conclusions,  is  a  tribute  to  the  sagacity  with  which 
his  comprehensive  mind  grasped  the  entire  subject. 

The  power  of  Spain  was  already  completely  broken 
at  the  time  of  Humboldt's  visit  to  the  isthmus,  yet 
the  enlightened  Charles  III.  had  seriously  revolved 
the  project  of  constructing  a  canal  during  his  reign, 
and  Revillagigedo,  his  not  less  enlightened  Mexican 
Viceroy,  had  made  explorations  to  that  end.  After 
the  American  provinces  had  achieved  their  inde- 
pendence, public  interest  in  the  inter-oceanic  canal 
problem  at  once  revived.  Bolivar  cherished  to  the 
last  the  hope  of  solving  it  in  the  interest  of  Colom- 
bia. Upon  the  fall  of  the  Spanish  power,  and  the 
separation  of  Guatemala  from  the  ephemeral  em- 
pire of  Iturbide  in  Mexico,  the  Nicaraguan  scheme 
was  revived  by  Central  America,  united  under  a 
federal  government.  The  interstate  jealousies  of 


THE  INTER-OCEANIC  CANAL.  19 

the  Central  American  Republic  were  strong  enough, 
however,  to  dissolve  the  union  and  to  suspend  all 
such  schemes. 

On  the  8th  of  February,  1825,  during  the  closing 
month  of  Mr.  Monroe's  administration,  Mr.  Canaz, 
who  then  represented  the  Central  American  Repub- 
lic at  Washington,  addressed  a  note  to  the  Depart- 
ment of  State,  proposing  the  co-operation  of  that 
republic  with  the  United  States  in  promoting  the 
opening  of  a  canal  through  the  province  of  Nicara- 
gua ;  and  proposing  also,  that  by  means  of  a  treaty 
the  advantages  of  the  canal  should  be  perpetually 
secured  to  the  two  nations.  The  note  remained  un- 
noticed until  after  the  beginning  of  the  administra- 
tion of  John  Quincy  Adams,  when  on  the  18th  of 
April,  1825,  Mr.  Clay,  his  Secretary  of  State,  replied 
to  it,  but  without  taking  any  direct  notice  of  the 
important  proposition  for  a  treaty  which  it  con- 
tained. Mr.  Clay  instructed  Mr.  Williams,  then 
our  Minister  in  Central  America,  to  investigate  the 
Nicaragua  route  with  the  greatest  care,  and  to  in- 
form the  government  of  the  result  of  his  inquiries. 

Mr.  Williams  seems  to  have  taken  a  deep  interest 
in  the  subject.  Through  his  influence,  on  the  16th 
of  June,  1826,  a  contract  was  entered  into  with  the 
Central  American  government,  on  behalf  of  Aaron  H. 
Palmer  of  New  York,  for  the  construction  of  a  canal 
through  Nicaragua,  with  a  capacity  for  "vessels  of 


20  THE  INTER-OCEANIG  CANAL. 

the  largest  burden  possible."  Mr.  Palmer  does  not 
appear  to  have  had  any  reliable  information  as  to  the 
cost  of  the  work,  although  he  had  as  his  associate  so 
judicious  a  practical  engineer  as  De  Witt  Clinton, 
and  was  assisted  by  the  Marquis  Aycinena,  a  Guate- 
malan exile  of  ability. 

It  was  proposed  to  raise  a  capital  of  only  $5,000,- 
000,  for  the  prosecution  of  the  entire  work.  The 
scheme  failed,  owing  to  the  inability  of  the  company 
which  Mr.  Palmer  represented  to  raise  the  amount 
required. 

The  American  company  having  failed  in  the  ful- 
fillment of  its  contract,  negotiations  were  opened 
by  Central  America  with  Holland,  which  came  to  a 
favorable  conclusion  under  the  direct  patronage  of 
the  king  in  1830  ;  but  the  commencement  of  the  un- 
dertaking by  the  Dutch  company  was  prevented  by 
the  political  disturbances  which  resulted  in  the  in- 
dependence of  Belgium ;  and,  upon  the  failure  of 
the  Dutch  company  to  carry  out  the  agreement  to 
construct  the  canal,  the  people  of  Central  America 
turned  again  for  aid  to  the  United  States,  as  their 
natural  ally  in  the  work.  Mr.  Savage,  consul  of  the 
United  States  at  Guatemala,  wrote  to  the  Depart- 
ment of  State,  on  the  3d  of  December,  1830 :  "Every 
one  seems  tacitly  to  look  forward  to  the  United 
States  for  the  completion  of  this  grand  project. 
They  say  that  the  United  States,  identified  in  her 


THE  INTER-OCEANIC  CANAL.  21 

institutions  with  this  government,  is  the  only  power 
that  ought  to  have  the  preference" 

The  Mcaraguan  inter-oceanic  canal  was  one  of  the 
first  subjects  which  engaged  the  attention  of  Jack- 
son's administration. 

On  the  20th  of  July,  1831,  Mr.  Livingston,  Secre- 
tary of  State,  addressed  the  following  instructions 
to  Mr.  Jeffers,  American  Charge  in  Central  America  : 

"...  You  will  endeavor  to  procure  for  the 
citizens  of  the  United  States,  or  for  the  government 
itself,  if  Congress  should  deem  the  measure  consti- 
tutional and  proper,  the  right  'of  subscribing  to  the 
stock  ;  and  you  will  in  either  case  procure  and  trans- 
mit such  plans,  estimates,  and  other  information 
relative  to  the  projected  work  as  may  enable  us  to 
judge  of  its  feasibility  and  importance.  The  depth 
of  water,  safety  from  storms,  capacity,  and  other 
facilities  of  the  projected  ports  at  the  two  extremi- 
ties, are  particularly  important  to  be  known,  as  well 
as  the  intended  length,  breadth,  and  depth  of  the 
canal  itself,  and  the  time  calculated  for  constructing 
it," 

Mr.  Jeffers  resigned  without  going  to  his  post,  but 
this  extract  is  exceedingly  interesting  as  showing 
the  views  entertained  on  this  subject  by  the  ad- 
ministration of  General  Jackson,  and  the  readiness 
of  that  administration  even  to  make  the  government 
a  partner  in  the  enterprise. 


22  THE  INTER-OCEANIC  CANAL. 

On  the  3d  of  March,  1835,  the  Senate  of  the 
United  States  adopted  the  following  resolution : 

"JZesolved,  That  the  President  of  the  United 
States  be  respectfully  requested  to  consider  the  ex- 
pediency of  opening  negotiations  with  the  govern- 
ments of  other  nations,  and  particularly  with  the 
governments  of  Central  America  and  New  Granada, 
for  the  purpose  of  effectually  protecting,  by  suitable 
treaty  stipulations  with  them,  such  individuals  or 
companies  as  may  undertake  to  open  a  communica- 
tion between  the  Atlantic  and  Pacific  oceans,  by 
construction  of  a  ship  canal  across  the  isthmus 
which  connects  North  and  South  America,  and  of 
securing  forever,  by  such  stipulations,  the  free  and 
equal  right  of  navigating  such  canal,  to  all  such 
nations,  on  the  payment  of  such  reasonable  tolls  as 
may  be  established  to  compensate  the  capitalists 
who  may  engage  in  such  undertaking,  to  complete 
the  work." 

In  accordance  with  this  resolution,  President  Jack- 
son appointed  Mr.  Charles  Biddle,  of  Philadelphia,  a 
special  agent  of  the  government.  He  was  instructed 
to  proceed  immediately  to  Port  San  Juan,  to  ascend 
the  river  San  Juan  to  the  Lake  of  Nicaragua,  and 
thence  by  the  contemplated  route  of  communica- 
tion by  canal  or  railroad  to  the  Pacific  Ocean.  After 
having  examined  the  route,  he  was  to  repair  to  the 
capital  of  Central  America,  and  procure  all  the  docu- 


THE  INTER-OCEANIC  CANAL.  23 

ments  to  be  had,  relating  to  the  subject.  Mr.  Biddle 
was  also  instructed  to  make  inquiries  in  regard  to 
the  Panama  route,  but  this  branch  of  the  subject 
was  subordinate  to  the  main  purpose  of  his  mission. 

Mr.  Biddle,  disobeying  his  instructions,  sailed  to 
Panama,  alleging  that  he  could  not  obtain  convey- 
ance to  San  Juan,  and  from  Panama  proceeded  to 
Bogota,  where  he  opened  negotiations  with  New 
Granada  for  a  macadamized  road  across  the  Isthmus 
of  Panama. 

Having  succeeded  in  obtaining  a  grant  for  this 
purpose,  in  which  he  seems  to  have  had  a  large 
personal  interest,  he  returned  to  the  United  States. 
His  course  did  not  meet  the  approval  of  the  govern- 
ment, and  his  project  proved  a  failure. 

The  first  actual  survey  of  a  canal  route  across  the 
State  of  Nicaragua  seems  to  have  been  that  begun 
in  1837  by  Lieut.  John  Baily,  R.M.,  who  was  em- 
ployed for  this  purpose  by  the  Federal  Government 
of  Central  America,  a  short  time  previous  to  its  dis- 
solution. Mr.  Baily  was  an  officer  of  the  British 
Royal  Marines,  who  had  resided  for  thirty  years  in 
Nicaragua.  He  was  fully  competent  to  the  under- 
taking, and  in  the  two  years  devoted  to  the  survey 
he  accomplished  much  that  has  permanent  value. 
General  Morazan  undertook  to  raise  a  loan  in  Europe 
upon  the  faith  of  Mr.  Baily' s  surveys,  but  his  de- 
sign was  frustrated  by  the  overthrow  of  the  Federal 


24  THE  INTER-OCEANIC  CANAL. 

Government,  the  flight  of  Morazan  into  Costa  Rica, 
and  his  execution  there. 

The  subject  still  continued  to  engage  attention  in 
the  United  States,  and  in  1839,  the  House  of  Repre- 
sentatives, on  the  memorial  of  a  number  of  leading 
merchants  of  Philadelphia  and  New  York,  adopted 
a  resolution  requesting  the  President  to  consider  the 
expediency  of  negotiating  with  other  nations  "for 
the  purpose  of  ascertaining  the  practicability  of  ef- 
fecting a  communication  between  the  Atlantic  and 
Pacific  oceans,  by  the  construction  of  a  ship  canal 
across  the  isthmus,  and  of  securing  forever,  by  suita- 
ble treaty  stipulations,  the  free  and  equal  right  of 
navigating  such  canal  to  all  nations."  It  does  not 
appear  that  any  governmental  action  followed  this 
resolution. 

The  Nicaragua  route  did  not,  for  several  years 
after  this  period,  receive  much  consideration,  owing 
chiefly  to  the  disturbed  political  condition  of  the 
severed  States  which  had  formerly  constituted  the 
Central  American  Republic.  In  1844,  M.  Castellon, 
of  Nicaragua,  visited  France  for  the  purpose  of  in- 
teresting the  government  of  Louis  Philippe  in  the 
subject,  but  he  found  the  Prime  Minister,  M.  'Gfui- 
zot,  committed  to  the  Panama  route,  which  Garella 
was  then  engaged  in  examining.  Louis  Napoleon 
was  then  imprisoned  at  Ham,  for  his  attempt  to 
revolutionize  the  government  of  France,  and  the 


THE  INTER-OCEANIC  CANAL.  25 

authorities,  willing  to  find  employment  for  this 
troublesome  prisoner,  permitted  him  to  have  an 
interview  with  Castellon.  So  far  as  appears,  no 
definite  arrangements  were  made  for  his  release, 
although  he  pledged  himself  to  undertake  the  work 
if  permitted  to  go  to  America. 

Nicaragua  showed  her  willingness  to  place  him  at 
the  head  of  the  enterprise,  by  granting  a  charter, 
in  1846,  to  the  "  Canal  Napoleon  de  Nicaragua." 
Soon  after  Napoleon's  subsequent  escape  from 
prison,  he  published  in  London  a  pamphlet  entitled 
"  Canal  de  Nicaragua,"  with  an  appeal  to  capitalists 
on  behalf  of  the  enterprise.  It  has  never  been 
known  in  this  country  how  far  toward  success  the 
canal  scheme  of  Prince  Louis  Napoleon  had  been 
pushed,  when  the  revolution  of  February,  1848,  called 
him  away  from  the  work  to  overthrow  a  republic 
and  to  found  the  Second  Empire.  It  may  be  well 
now  to  say  that  the  necessary  funds  were  assured, 
that  the  arrangements  for  commencing  the  work 
were  in  progress,  and  that  the  English  operations 
in  Central  America  which  roused  the  indignation  of 
this  country,  and  eventually  led  to  the  too  cele- 
brated Clay  ton  -  Bulwer  negotiations,  were  under- 
taken in  connection  with  the  development  of  the 
Napoleonic  scheme. 

The  acquisition  of  California  by  the  American 
government,  and  the  discovery  of  gold  there  soon 


26  THE  INTER-OCEANIC  CANAL. 

afterward,  gave  a  greater  prominence  than  ever  be- 
fore to  the  subject  of  inter-oceanic  communication. 
The  necessity  for  immediate  means  of  transit  for 
the  large  emigration  to  California  rendered  imper- 
ative the  adoption  of  temporary  expedients  for  the 
transit  of  the  isthmus,  and  led  to  the  opening  of  an 
overland  route  by  the  Isthmus  of  Panama,  and  to 
another  across  the  Isthmus  of  Nicaragua,  by  the  San 
Juan  River  and  the  lake  in  part,  and  by  land  from 
the  lake  to  the  Pacific. 

Surveys  and  explorations  were  immediately  com- 
menced upon  both  routes.  In  this  connection,  the 
labors  of  Frederick  M.  Kelley  deserve  to  be  men- 
tioned with  the  highest  praise.  He  devoted  his  for- 
tune and  his  time  to  the  investigation  of  the  problem 
of  the  discovery  of  a  practicable  canal  route.  It  is 
not  within  the  scope  of  this  work  to  give  a  detailed 
account  of  the  causes  which  rendered  the  labors  of 
Kelley  and  his  contemporaries  futile.  So  far  as  the 
Isthmus  of  Panama  is  concerned,  the  explorations 
and  surveys  resulted  in  the  construction  of  the  Pa- 
nama Railroad,  which  was  commenced  in  1850,  at  a 
cost  of  $7,500,000,  by  a  company  chartered  by  the 
State  of  New  York,  and  protected  by  treaty  stipu- 
lations between  the  Colombian  and  American  gov- 
ernments. 

The  construction  of  this  railroad  was  a  memorable 
achievement  of  human  energy,  and  has  made  famous 


THE  INTER-OCEANIC  CANAL.  27 

the  names  of  our  countrymen,  Aspinwall,  Stephens, 
and  Totten,  by  whose  perseverance  and  zeal  the  en- 
terprise was  carried  to  a  successful  conclusion. 

Even  after  the  suspension  of  the  projects  of  Louis 
Napoleon,  the  prospects  of  the  Nicaragua  inter-oce- 
anic canal  seemed  good.  The  work  was  taken  in 
hand  by  the  Browns  of  New  York,  and  on  the  27th 
August,  1849,  a  contract  for  constructing  a  canal  was 
entered  into  by  a  New  York  company,  called  the 
American  Atlantic  and  Pacific  Ship  Canal  Company. 
O.  W.  Childs,  a  distinguished  engineer  of  Philadel- 
phia, employed  by  the  company  to  make  a  thorough 
survey  of  the  route,  began  the  work  in  August,  1850. 
His  survey,  the  most  careful  and  scientific  made  to 
that  date,  was,  at  the  request  of  the  company,  re- 
ferred, by  Mr.  Conrad,  Secretary  of  War,  to  Colonel 
J.  J.  Abert  and  Major  W.  Turnbull,  of  the  United 
States  Topographical  Engineers,  who  pronounced 
the  plan  practicable,  and  expressed  the  opinion  that 
no  other  route  is  so  well  supplied  with  water  as  that 
through  Nicaragua. 

The  plans  submitted  by  Childs  did  not,  however, 
meet  the  approval  of  capitalists,  chiefly  because  the 
size  of  the  canal  proposed  by  him  was  not  deemed 
sufficient  for  the  wants  of  commerce.  The  failure  of 
the  American  Atlantic  and  Pacific  Canal  Company 
to  undertake  the  construction  of  a  canal,  was  really 
due  to  the  fact  that  a  subordinate,  company,  formed 


28  THE  INTER-OCEANIC  CANAL. 

by  it,  and  known  as  the  Accessory  Transit  Company, 
found  the  business  of  carrying  passengers  and  treas- 
ure across  the  isthmus  so  profitable,  that  it  was  in- 
terested in  postponing  the  construction  of  the  canal. 
The  project  was  finally  ruined  by  the  Walker  expe- 
dition, and  the  consequent  prejudice  and  animosity 
which  that  ill-fated  adventurer  stirred  up  in  Nica- 
ragua against  the  American  people. 

The  events  of  1861,  in  the  United  States,  put  an 
end  to  all  attempts  on  the  part  of  American  citizens 
to  construct  the  Nicaragua  inter-oceanic  canal. 

Three  years  before  that  time,  however,  Louis  Na- 
poleon, become  Emperor  of  the  French,  had  given 
the  world  a  signal  illustration  of  the  tenacity  with 
which  he  clung  to  his  favorite  idea  of  utilizing  the 
canal  project  to  re-establish  French  influence  in  the 
New  World.  Under  his  protection,  and  with  direct 
encouragement  from  him,  M.  Felix  Belly,  an  engi- 
neer of  ability,  and  a  man  full  of  energy  and  enthu- 
siasm, organized,  in  1858,  a  company  to  construct  a 
canal  by  way  of  the  San  Juan.  He  obtained  con- 
tracts both  from  Costa  Rica  and  from  Nicaragua, 
and,  accompanied  by  a  number  of  workmen  and 
assistants,  came  out  in  person  to  superintend  the  en- 
terprise. He  laid  the  foundations  of  a  city  to  be 
called  Feliciana,  near  Fort  San  Carlos,  and  pro- 
ceeded for  some  time  with  tWe  work,  when  all  his 
enterprises  were  brought  to  a  sudden  termination  by 


THE  INTER-OCEANIC  CANAL.  29 

the  failure  of  his  chief  financial  associate  to  supply 
him  with  the  promised  funds.  M.  Belly  returned  to 
France,  where  he  has  never  since  ceased  to  labor  for 
the  consummation  of  the  schemes  with  which  he  had 
united  his  fortunes  and  his  name  so  disastrously, 
and  he  made  his  appearance  at  the  Paris  Congress  of 
1879  as  full  of  confidence  andr  hope  as  ever. 

Ten  years  afterward,  the  energetic  assistance  of 
the  Emperor  Napoleon,  exasperated  at  the  collapse 
of  his  plans  in  Mexico,  enabled  the  illustrious  econ- 
omist and  statesman,  M.  Michel  Chevalier,  to  revive 
the  French  project  of  a  Mcaraguan  canal.  M.  Che- 
valier obtained,  in  conjunction  with  Don  Tomas 
Ayon,  of  Nicaragua,  a  working  contract  for  the  con- 
struction of  the  canal,  and  arrangements  were  mak- 
ing at  Paris  to  put  the  contract  into  execution,  when 
they  were  suddenly  suspended  by  the  outbreak  of 
the  great  Franco-German  war.  M.  Chevalier  has 
since  died,  but  the  imperial  French  tradition  surviv- 
ing him  has  been  once  more  taken  up,  and  with  still 
greater  energy,  as  we  see,  at  the  end  of  another  dec- 
ade, by  Lieut.  Bonaparte  Wyse  and  the  Viscount 
Ferdinand  de  Lesseps,  who  have  simply  changed 
the  venue  of  the  French  schemes  from  Costa 
Bica  and  Nicaragua  to  the  United  States  of  Colom- 
bia. 

This  preliminary  historical  sketch  is  confined,  it 
will  be  seen,  chiefly  to  Mcaraguan  projects,  and  this 


30  THE  INTER-OCEANIC  CANAL. 

because  these  projects  have  chiefly  engaged  pub- 
lic attention  during  the  last  twenty  years.  More 
or  less  attention  has  always  continued  to  be  given, 
however,  to  the  Tehuantepec,  Panama,  and  Darien 
routes,  all  of  which  have  at  various  times  been 
strongly  advocated.  So  far  as  our  own  country  is 
concerned,  the  Nicaragua  route  has  always  been  re- 
garded with  the  most  favor,  both  upon  the  ground 
of  its  practicability  and  for  political  reasons. 

At  the  close  of  the  civil  war,  the  National  Gov- 
ernment again  turned  its  attention  to  the  inter- 
oceanic  canal,  as  a  subject  which  deserved  imme- 
diate consideration.  On  the  19th  of  March,  1866, 
the  Senate  of  the  United  States  adopted  the  follow- 
ing resolution : 

"Resolved,  That  the  Secretary  of  the  Navy  fur- 
nish, through  a  report  of  the  Superintendent  of  the 
Naval  Observatory,  the  summit  levels  and  distances 
by  survey  of  the  various  proposed  lines  for  inter- 
oceanic  canals  and  railroads  between  the  waters  of 
the  Atlantic  and  Pacific  Oceans  ;  as,  also  their  rela- 
tive merits  as  practicable  lines  for  the  construction 
of  a  ship  canal,  and  especially  as  relates  to  Hon- 
duras, Tehuantepec,  Nicaragua,  Panama,  and  Atra- 
to  lines ;  and  also  whether,  in  the  opinion  of  the 
Superintendent,  the  Isthmus  of  Darien  has  been 
satisfactorily  explored ;  and  if  so,  furnish  in  detail, 
charts,  plans,  lines  of  levels,  and  all  information 


THE  INTER-OCEANIC  CANAL.  31 

connected  therewith,  and  upon  what  authority  they 
are  based." 

In  response  to  this  resolution,  Rear- Admiral  Davis, 
on  the  llth  day  of  July,  1866,  submitted  a  report 
containing  a  summary  of  the  explorations  and  sur- 
veys which  had  been  made  prior  to  that  time.  This 
report,  while  making  a  clear  presentation  of  the 
work  which  had  already  been  done  in  the  explora- 
tion of  the  isthmus,  and  incidentally  illustrating  the 
importance  of  an  inter-oceanic  canal,  at  the  same 
time  set  forth  the  insufficiency  of  the  data  as  yet 
obtained  on  the  subject.  Upon  this  point,  Admiral 
Davis  remarks : 

"There  does  not  exist  in  the  libraries  of  the  world 
the  means  of  determining,  even  approximately,  the 
most  practicable  route  for  a  ship  canal  across  the 
isthmus." 

This  report  produced  very  important  results  ;  and 
the  necessity  was  shown  for  further  explorations 
and  surveys,  in  order  to  determine  the  general  feasi- 
bility of  the  work,  and  the  selection  of  a  route 
which,  while  presenting  engineering  difficulties  ca- 
pable of  being  overcome  at  the  expense  of  a  reason- 
able amount  of  capital,  would  serve  sufficiently  well 
the  interests  of  commerce. 

During  the  first  term  of  President  Grant's  admin- 
istration, the  American  government  began  a  series 
of  thorough  and  well-directed  explorations,  which 


32  THE  INTER-OCEANIC  CANAL. 

have  furnished  more  trustworthy  information  on 
this  subject  than  had  been  obtained  by  the  labors 
of  all  previous  explorers  during  the  preceding  three 
hundred  and  fifty  years. 

It  is  unnecessary  to  examine  the  reports  of  these 
surveys  in  detail.  They  embrace  the  surveys  of  the 
Tehuantepec  route  by  Captain  R  "VV.  Shufeldt,  of  the 
Nicaragua  route  by  Commander  E.  P.  Lull  and  Civil 
Engineer  A.  G.  Menocal,  of  the  Atrato-Nipipi  route 
by  Lieutenant  Collins  and  Commander  Selfridge, 
and  of  the  Panama  route  by  the  Navy  Department. 
These  surveys  were  all  carefully  and  thoroughly 
examined  by  a  commission  appointed  by  President 
Grant,  consisting  of  Brigadier-General  Andrew  A. 
Humphries,  C.  P.  Patterson,  Superintendent  of  the 
Coast  Survey,  and  Rear- Admiral  Ammen. 

The  result  of  the  labors  of  this  commission  is  stated 
in  the  report  of  the  7th  of  February,  1876,  submitted 
to  the  President,  from  which  we  quote  the  following 
passage : 
"  To  the  President  of  the  United  States: 

"The  commission  appointed  by  you  to  consider 
the  subject  of  communication  by  canal  between  the 
waters  of  the  Atlantic  and  Pacific  Oceans,  across, 
over,  or  near  the  isthmus  connecting  North  and  South 
America,  have  the  honor,  after  a  long,  careful,  and 
minute  study  of  the  several  surveys  of  the  various 
routes  across  the  continent,  unanimously  to  report : 


THE  INTER-OCEANIC  CANAL.  33 

"1.  That  the  route  known  as  the  'Nicaragua 
route,'  beginning  on  the  Atlantic  side  at  or  near 
Greytown  ;  running  by  canal  to  the  San  Juan  River, 
thence  following  its  left  bank  to  the  mouth  of  the 
San  Carlos  River,  at  which  point  navigation  of  the 
San  Juan  River  begins,  and  by  the  aid  of  three  short 
canals  of  an  aggregate  length  of  3'5  miles  reaches 
Lake  Nicaragua ;  from  thence  across  the  lake  and 
through  the  valleys  of  the  Rio  del  Medio  and  the 
Rio  Grande,  to  what  is  known  as  the  port  of  Brito, 
on  the  Pacific  coast,  possesses,  both  for  the  construc- 
tion and  maintenance  of  a  canal,  greater  advantages, 
and  offers  fewer  difficulties  from  engineering,  com- 
mercial, and  economic  points  of  view,  than  any  one 
of  the  other  routes  shown  to  be  practicable  by  sur- 
veys sufficiently  in  detail  to  enable  a  judgment  to  be 
formed  of  their  relative  merits,  as  will  be  briefly  pre- 
sented in  the  appended  memorandum." 

The  decision  of  this  commission  of  experienced' 
engineers  must  be  accepted  as  entitled  to  great  con- 
sideration with  respect  to  the  comparative  merits  of 
the  several  routes  which  were  the  subject  of  their 
examination.  But  the  assumption,  if  advanced,  that 
these  are  the  only  routes  across  the  isthmus,  is  clear- 
ly untenable.  The  history  of  the  subject  shows  that 
no  thorough  and  exhaustive  exploration  from  end  to 
end  of  the  mountain  range  which  presents  the  bar- 
rier to  the  transit  of  the  isthmus  has  yet  been  made. 


34  THE  INTER-OCEANIC  CANAL. 

Reports  made  from  time  to  time  by  adventurous  ex- 
plorers warrant  the  opinion  that  this  great  engineer- 
ing problem  cannot  be  deemed  to  have  received  its 
final  and  complete  solution  until  further  scientific 
search  has  been  made  upon  other  lines  of  crossing 
than  those  so  far  examined. 

A  civil  engineer,  evidently  of  ability,  in  a  recent 
letter  to  the  Alta  (San  Francisco),  Calfform'an, 
makes  the  following  suggestions  toward  further  ex- 
plorations : 

"  The  solution  of  this  question,  'Where  can  a  prac- 
ticable route  for  a  ship  canal  through  the  Isthmus 
of  Panama  be  found,  upon  which  it  can  be  built  at  a 
reasonable  cost  and  in  a  few  years  of  time  ? '  is  a 
question  of  orology,  geology,  topography,  the  chem- 
istry of  rocks  and  their  relations,  the  metals  in  their 
relations  to  the  mountain  chains,  and  as  the  cause  of 
local  topography  everywhere  in  metal-bearing  coun- 
tries, as  is  this  isthmus  region. 

"The  orologic  system  of  the  isthmus,  from  Porto 
Bello  to  Port  David,  on  the  Pacific,  as  shown  by  the 
maps  and  by  all  of  the  numerous  surveys  of  that  re- 
gion, is  this:  That  the  course  of  all  the  mountains 
is  about  west  north-west.  Witness  the  San  Bias 
Mountains,  from  Porto  Bello  to  its  junction  with  the 
Andes.  Also,  that  the  Panama  Mountains  follow 
the  same  course,  and  Self  ridge's  map,  accompanying 
his  report  of  1871  or  1872,  shows  by  the  delineated 


THE  INTER-OCEANIC  CANAL.  35 

river  drainage  that  from  Point  Petillo,  near  Panama, 
eastward  to  the  Andes,  the  mountain  is  missing — 
submerged. 

"Now,  mining  experience  declares  that  a  low 
valley  is  all  but  universally,  indeed  we  may  with 
safety  say  universally  and  everywhere,  found  be- 
tween the  easterly  and  westerly  chains,  and  hence  a 
route  will  doubtless  be  found  by  ascending  the  Rio 
Juan  de  Bias  to  six  to  twelve  miles  north  of  Panama 
or  thereabouts  ;  a  route  through  sedimentary  rocks 
should  be  found  at  a  low  elevation,  through  to 
the  Chagres  and  to  the  Atlantic. 

"  Southwest  of  Panama,  a  route  should  be  looked 
for  from  Chami  Bay  through  to  the  Rio  Indios,  on 
the  Verajua  shore,  through  a  low  east-and-west  val- 
ley, between  the  Panama  Mountains  on  the  north 
and  the  Chami  Mountains  on  the  south. 

"Another  route,  lying  between  the  Chami  Mount- 
ains on  the  north  and  the  Chiriqui  Mountains  on  the 
south,  is  to  be  looked  for  through  the  east-and-west 
valley  extending  from  the  Gulf  of  Parita,  on  the 
Pacific,  through  to  the  Rio  Belem  of  Columbus. 

"  And  a  fourth  route,  which,  if  found,  as  I  believe 
it  can  be,  will  probably  be  better  than  either  of  the 
others,  is  from  Chiriqui  Lagoon,  in  the  Caribbean 
Sea,  through  to  the  Pacific,  directly  through  the 
mountains  to  the  east  of  the  volcano  of  Chiriqui. 

"Hitherto,  exploration  has  been  conducted  to  the 


36  .          THE  INTER-OCEANIC  CANAL. 

west  of  the  volcano,  but  science  points  to  that  local- 
ity (east  of  the  volcano)  as  the  place  to  find  an 
opening. 

"  Wheelwright,  in  his  report  upon  this  locality  to 
the  Royal  Geographical  Society,  published  by  them 
in  1844,  page  10,  says,  '  I  was  assured  by  several  per- 
sons that  a  deep  gorge  had  been  discovered  in  the 
Untim  Mountains,'  etc.,  which  seems  to  confirm  this 
deduction. 

"This  Chiriqui  Lagoon  route  has  the  farther  ad- 
vantages that  it  is  outside  of  the  one  hundred  mile 
limit,  within  which  the  Panama  Railroad  has  con- 
trol, viz.,  to  secure  certain  defined  pecuniary  com- 
pensation, whereon  a  ship  canal  might  be  built. 
The  distance  between  ports  on  the  Atlantic  and 
Pacific  coasts  of  the  United  States  is  150  miles 
shorter.  It  possesses  unsurpassed  harbors  on  both 
coasts,  fine  healthful  climate,  good  soil,  abundance 
of  pure  water,  and  coal  in  unlimited  supply,  for  the 
steamers  which  must  necessarily  be  employed  in  the 
carrying  trade  of  the  future." 

That  the  canal  problem  should  have  been  regarded 
as  satisfactorily  solved,  rival  routes  determined  upon, 
the  requisite  plans  for  the  work  elaborated,  costly 
preparations  made,  and  in  more  than  one  instance 
the  undertaking  actually  begun,  with  the  exploration 
of  the  isthmus  as  yet  so  incomplete  is  truly  surpris- 
ing. 


THE  INTER-OCEANIC  CANAL.  37 

The  latest  step  of  importance  in  the  history  of  the 
projects  for  an  American  inter-oceanic  canal  is  the 
call  issued  for  a  conference  on  the  subject  at  Paris  in 
May,  1879,  under  the  nominal  auspices  of  the  Geo- 
graphical Society  of  Paris  ;  in  reality  at  the  instance 
of  the  French  company  known  as  the  "  Commission 
Internationale  d' Exploration."  The  professed  ob- 
ject of  this  conference  was  the  discussion  of  the  best 
route  for  the  inter-oceanic  canal. 

The  American  government  unofficially  authorized 
two  eminent  officers  of  the  navy  to  attend  the  con- 
ference as  delegates,  in  order  that  it  might  be  in- 
formed of  the  results  of  the  explorations  made  by 
the  United  States. 

The  true  character  of  the  Paris  Conference  of  1879 
and  the  motives  of  its  originators  are  described  by 
the  editor  of  the  North  American  Review  in  an  in- 
troductory note  to  an  article  by  Mr.  Menocal  in  the 
number  of  that  periodical  for  September,  1879,  as 
follows : 

"  It  was  rumored  in  Paris  during  the  late  Canal 
Congress,  that  the  concession  for  the  Darien  canal, 
which  was  held  by  a  little  company  of  which  Gen- 
eral Turr  is  president,  was  divided  into  100  shares  of 
500  francs  each,  and  seemed  to  be  understood  that 
a  company  of  400,000,000  francs'  capital  would  be 
formed  to  purchase  the  concession  from  the  Turr 
company,  and  would  pay  the  stockholders  of  this 


38  THE  INTER-OCEANIC  CANAL. 

association  25,000,000  francs  for  their  privileges. 
Thus  each  share  of  500  francs  would  become  worth 
250,000  francs. 

"  With  the  fall  of  Sedan  and  the  fortunes  of  the 
Second  Empire,  a  large  number  of  the  most  promi- 
nent Bonapartists  lost  their  means  of  subsistence, 
and  found  themselves  in  a  condition  bordering  on 
beggary.  There  were  few  men  of  private  resources 
among  them.  Some  had  been  placemen  or  stock 
speculators,  while  others  had  been  the  recipients  of 
constant  and  liberal  gifts  from  the  emperor's  privy 
purse.  These  gentlemen  soon  began  to  look  to  M . 
de  Lesseps,  a  connection  of  the  Empress  Eugenie, 
for  help  and  guidance.  He  alone,  of  this  helpless 
and  hungry  crowd,  could  command  the  credit  and 
confidence  of  capitalists.  To  pierce  the  isthmus  of 
Central  America  had  been  the  cherished  wish  of 
Louis  Napoleon,  and  this  project  was  not  long  in 
recurring  to  his  dejected  followers.  Thus  the  scheme 
was  revived  and  matured  under  the  sponsorship  and 
direction  of  M.  de  Lesseps,  the  executive  duties  of 
the  undertaking  devolving  upon  Lieutenant  Bona- 
parte "Wyse,  whose  sister  is  married  to  General 
Turr. 

"A  careful  examination  of  the  names  of  the 
French  delegates  to  the  Canal  Congress  shows  how 
entirely  it  was  packed  with  subservient  friends  of 
the  fallen  dynasty;  nor  is  it  well  to  overlook  the 


THE  INTER-OCEANIC  CANAL.  39 

fact  that  the  shares  of  the  Tiirr  Company  were 
largely  held  by  them.  These  people  once  went  to 
Mexico  to  seek  their  fortunes  in  a  Franco-Mexican 
Empire.  It  seems  passing  strange  that  the  conspic- 
uous defeat  of  those  plans,  which  embraced  the  de- 
struction of  the  American  Union,  should  have  failed 
to  teach  them  some  degree  of  caution  before  affect- 
ing to  despise  the  views  of  the  American  envoys  from 
Washington,  or  attempting  to  tamper  with  American 
interests  in  America." 

Comment  upon  the  motives  which  inspired  the 
proceedings  of  the  convention  is  foreign  to  the  pur- 
pose of  this  paper,  except  with  respect  to  their  po- 
litical significance.  In  this  aspect,  however,  the 
scheme  which  received  the  sanction  of  this  conven- 
tion demands  the  grave  consideration  of  the  Ameri- 
can people.  It  is  plain  that  the  originators  of  the 
Wyse-Lesseps  canal  project  rely  largely  for  the 
success  of  the  enterprise  upon  the  belief  that  it  will, 
when  completed,  extend  the  power  and  influence  of 
the  Latin  race  in  general,  and  promote  the  interests 
of  France  in  particular.  The  failure  of  France  to 
maintain  a  footing  in  Mexico  is  to  be  compensated 
for  by  the  construction  of  an  inter-oceanic  canal  upon 
neighboring  territory  and  under  French  auspices. 
French  capital  is  to  levy  tribute  upon  the  commerce 
of  the  globe,  establishing  upon  the  American  Isth- 
mus a  Latin  stronghold,  to  the  effectual  obstruction 


40  THE  INTER-OCEANIC  CANAL. 

of  the  extension  of  Anglo-Saxon  dominion  and  in- 
fluence. 

That  M.  de  Lesseps  can  count  upon  the  cordial 
support  not  only  of  his  own  government,  but  also  of 
other  European  powers,  can  be  doubted  by  no  one 
familiar  with  European  policy  where  European  in- 
terests are  involved.  A  failure  to  see  the  main 
chance  and  to  grasp  it,  is  not  among  the  defects  of 
monarchical  institutions. 


THE  AUTHOR  AND  THE  ORIGIN  OP  THE  MONROE 
DOCTRINE. 


THE  authorship  and  origin  of  the  Monroe  doc- 
trine have  at  various  times  been  subjects  of  discus- 
sion. Simmer  says  that  Canning  was  its  inventor, 
promoter,  and  champion,  and  the  same  claim  sub- 
stantially has  been  made  on  behalf  of  Jefferson, 
John  Quincy  Adams,  and  Monroe.  It  is  unques- 
tionably true  that  the  suggestions  made  in  the  sum- 
mer of  1823,  by  Canning  to  Mr.  Rush,  then  Ameri- 
can Minister  at  London,  when  reported  by  him  to 
the  Department  of  State  at  Washington,  were  the 
means  of  calling  the  attention  of  Mr.  Monroe  and 
his  cabinet  to  the  subject.  One  of  the  questions 
which  Mr.  Canning  asked  Mr.  Rush  was,  "Were  the 
great  political  and  commercial  interests,  which  hung 
upon  the  destinies  of  the  new  continent,  to  be  can- 
vassed and  adjusted  in  Europe  without  the  co-opera- 
tion, or  even  the  knowledge  of  the  United  States  ?" 

This  question  of  Canning's  contains  the  germ  of 

the  Monroe  doctrine.     When  Mr.  Rush's  dispatches 

41 


42  THE  INTER-OCEANIC  CANAL. 

on  the  subject  were  received  at  Washington,  the 
President  sent  copies  to  Jefferson  and  Madison,  and 
consulted  them  on  the  subject.  They  both  favored 
the  policy  of  acting  in  conjunction  with  England  in 
opposition  to  the  designs  of  the  Holy  Alliance  of  in- 
terfering in  this  hemisphere  to  restore  to  Spain  her 
revolted  colonies.  When  the  matter  of  determining 
what  political  form  the  action  of  our  country  should 
take  came  up,  it  was  Mr.  Adams's  business,  as  the 
member  of  the  cabinet  who  had  charge  of  the  man- 
agement of  our  foreign  affairs,  to  determine  upon 
what  principles  our  official  declarations  on  the  sub- 
ject should  be  founded.  Mr.  Calhoun,  who  was  also 
a  member  of  Monroe's  cabinet,  says  that  Adams 
was  the  author  of  the  declarations  which  are  now 
known  as  those  of  the  President  who  indorsed  them. 
Mr.  Calhoun  is  sustained  by  the  fact  that  in  those 
days,  as  is  now  the  case,  the  Secretary  of  State  was 
accustomed  to  write  the  portions  of  the  messages 
relative  to  foreign  affairs,  and  in  this  case  the  draft 
made  by  Mr.  Adams  in  that  capacity  was  adopted 
without  change. 


THE  MONROE  DOCTRINE. 


THE  attempts  to  carry  into  effect  the  Lesseps- 
Wyse  scheme  for  constructing  an  inter-oceanic  canal 
under  French  auspices,  bring  the  question  home  to 
Americans,  and  make  it  necessary  for  us  to  con- 
sider practically  whether  that  scheme  can  be  car- 
ried out  consistently  with  the  Monroe  doctrine, 
which,  as  laid  down  in  President  Monroe's  annual 
message  of  December  2d,  1823,  consists  of  two  propo- 
sitions : 

First.  In  speaking  of  the  controversy  as  to  the 
North-western  boundary,  and  the  proposed  arrange- 
ments with  Great  Britain  and  Russia,  the  message 
uses  the  following  language  : 

"In  the  discussions  to  which  this  interest  has 
given  rise,  and  in  the  arrangements  in  which  they 
may  terminate,  the  occasion  has  been  judged  proper 
for  asserting  as  a  principle  in  which  the  rights  and 
interests  of  the  United  States  are  involved,  that  the 
American  continents,  by  the  free  and  independent 

43 


44  THE  INTER-OCEANIC  CANAL. 

condition  which  they  have  assumed  and  maintained, 
are  henceforth  not  to  be  considered  as  subjects  for 
future  colonization  by  any  European  power." 

In  order  to  properly  interpret  this  passage,  the 
political  condition  of  the  continents  referred  to  at 
the  time  it  was  written  must  be  considered.  There 
did  not  then  exist  upon  either  of  them  any  territory 
outside  of  the  limits  of  the  United  States  which  was 
not  claimed  by  some  European  power.  The  protest 
was  directed  against  the  occupation  of  any  terri- 
tory upon  either  continent,  upon  the  pretense  that 
it  was  unoccupied,  and  this  without  any  reference 
to  whether  the  territory  involved  was  or  was  not 
claimed  by  the  United  States.  Mr.  Monroe  spoke 
not  for  his  own  country  merely,  nor  even  chiefly ; 
but  for  every  other  American  republic.  He  asserted 
an  abstract  principle.  It  was  a  broad  declaration  to 
the  effect  that  territorial  questions  touching  these 
continents  were  henceforth  to  be  managed  by  the 
"free  and  independent"  states  already  established 
upon  them.  It  was  the  announcement  of  a  princi- 
ple of  foreign  policy  of  peculiar  significance,  and  it 
should  be  recognized  as  a  permanent  and  controlling 
tenet  governing  our  relations  with  foreign  powers. 
It  means  that  no  European  power  can  be  permitted 
to  gain  a  foothold  upon  the  American  continents, 
either  by  direct  colonization,  political  intrigue,  or 
the  not  less  dangerous  agency  of  gigantic  foreign 


THE  INTER-OCEANIC  CANAL.  45 

corporations,  more  powerful  than  the  states  upon 
whose  territory  they  are  fixed. 

Second.  In  another  part  of  the  same  message,  Mr. 
Monroe,  in  speaking  of  the  condition  of  the  people 
of  Spain  and  Portugal,  and  of  their  efforts  to  im- 
prove their  condition,  efforts  frustrated  by  the  inter- 
ference of  the  Holy  Alliance,  says : 

"In  the  wars  of  the  European  powers,  in  matters 
relating  to  themselves,  we  have  never  taken  any 
part,  nor  does  it  comport  with  our  policy  so  to  do. 
It  is  only  when  our  rights  are  invaded  or  seriously 
menaced,  that  we  resent  injuries,  or  make  prepara- 
tions for  our  defense.  With  the  movements  in  this 
hemisphere  we  are  of  necessity  more  immediately 
connected,  and  by  causes  which  must  be  obvious  to 
all  enlightened  and  impartial  observers.  The  politi- 
cal system  of  the  allied  powers  is  essentially  dif- 
ferent in  this  respect  from  that  of  America.  This 
difference  proceeds  from  that  which  exists  in  their 
respective  governments.  And  to  the  defense  of  our 
own,  which  has  been  achieved  by  the  loss  of  so 
much  blood  and  treasure,  and  matured  by  the  wis- 
dom of  our  most  enlightened  citizens,  and  under 
which  we  have  enjoyed  an  unexampled  felicity,  the 
whole  nation  is  devoted.  We  owe  it,  therefore,  to 
candor  and  to  the  amicable  relations  existing  be- 
tween the  United  States  and  those  powers  to  declare, 
that  we  should  consider  any  attempt  on  their  part  to 


46  THE  INTER-OCEANIC  CANAL. 

extend  their  system  to  any  portion  of  this  hemi- 
sphere as  dangerous  to  our  peace  and  safety.  With 
•existing  colonies  or  dependencies  of  any  European 
power  we  have  not  interfered,  and  shall  not  inter- 
fere. But  with  the  governments  who  have  declared 
their  independence  and  maintained  it,  and  whose 
independence  we  have,  on  great  considerations  and 
on  just  principles,  acknowledged,  we  could  not  view 
any  interposition,  for  the  purpose  of  oppressing 
them,  or  controlling  in  any  other  manner  their  des- 
tiny, by  any  European  power,  in  any  other  light 
than  as  the  manifestation  of  an  unfriendly  disposi- 
tion toward  the  United  States.  In  the  war  between 
those  new  governments  and  Spain,  we  declared  our 
neutrality  at  the  time  of  their  recognition ;  and  to 
this  we  have  adhered,  and  we  shall  continue  to  ad- 
here, provided  no  change  shall  occur  which,  in  the 
judgment  of  the  competent  authorities  of  this  gov- 
ernment, shall  make  a  corresponding  change  on  the 
part  of  the  United  States  indispensable  to  their  secu- 
rity." 

Speaking  of  the  intervention  of  the  Holy  Alliance 
in  the  internal  affairs  of  Spain,  Mr.  Monroe  says : 

"  To  what  extent  such  interposition  maybe  car- 
ried, on  the  same  principle,  is  a  question  in  which  all 
independent  powers  whose  governments  differ  from 
theirs  are  interested,  and  even  those  most  remote, 
and  surely  none  more  so  than  the  United  States. 


THE  INTER-OCEANIC  CANAL.  47 

"Our  policy  in  regard  to  Europe,  which  was 
adopted  at  an  early  stage  of  the  wars  which  have  so 
long  agitated  that  quarter  of  the  globe,  nevertheless 
remains  the  same ;  which  is,  not  to  interfere  in  the 
internal  concerns  of  any  of  its  powers  ;  to  consider 
the  government  de  facto  as  the  legitimate  govern- 
ment for  us  ;  to  cultivate  friendly  relations  with  it ; 
and  to  preserve  these  relations  by  a  frank,  firm, 
and  manly  policy,  meeting  in  all  instances  the  just 
claims  of  every  power,  submitting  to  injuries  from 
none.  But,  in  regard  to  these  continents,  circum- 
stances are  eminently  and  conspicuously  different. 
It  is  impossible  that  the  allied  powers  should  extend 
this  political  system  to  any  portion  of  either  continent 
without  endangering  our  peace  and  happiness  ;  nor 
can  we  believe  that  our  Southern  brethren,  if  left  to 
themselves,  would  adopt  it  of  their  own  accord.  It 
is  equally  impossible,  therefore,  that  we  should  be- 
hold such  interposition  in  any  form  with  indiffer- 
ence. If  we  look  to  the  comparative  strength  and 
resources  of  Spain  and  these  new  governments,  and 
their  distance  from  each  other,  it  must  be  obvious 
that  she  can  never  subdue  them.  It  is  still  the  true 
policy  of  the  United  States  to  leave  the  parties  to 
themselves,  in  the  hope  that  other  powers  will  pur- 
sue the  same  course." 

In  this  portion  of  the  message,  the  non-interven- 
tion policy  laid  down  in  Washington's  Farewell  Ad- 


48  THE  INTER-OCEANIC  CANAL. 

dress  is  reaffirmed  so  far  as  the  affairs  of  Europe  are 
concerned,  bnt  it  is  distinctly  asserted  that  as  to 
this  hemisphere  that  policy  does  not  apply. 

The  message  contemplates  positive  and  affirmative 
resistance  to  any  action  tending  to  give  European 
powers  any  increase  of  territory  or  of  influence  in 
the  New  World.  The  language  used  with  reference 
to  this  subject  is  very  comprehensive.  It  declares 
that  we  must  consider  any  attempt  upon  the  part 
of  European  powers  to  extend  their  system  to  any 
part  of  this  hemisphere,  as  "dangerous  to  our  peace 
and  safety."  But  it  does  not  stop  there.  It  de- 
clares that  this  government  cannot  permit  any  inter- 
ference of  the  powers  of  Europe  for  the  purpose  of 
oppressing  any  of  the  states  of  these  continents, 
"or  controlling  in  any  other  manner  their  des- 
tiny" Plainly  the  language  of  this  message  meant 
that  we  thereby  assumed  the  protectorate  of  the 
republics  upon  the  Western  continents.  It  em- 
phatically prohibits  any  interference  by  European 
powers  calculated  to  control  their  destiny  in  any 
manner  whatever.  It  means  that  American  affairs 
must  be  controlled  by  Americans,  and  that  we,  as 
the  leading  American  power,  will  see  to  the  enforce- 
ment of  this  doctrine. 

It  has  been  alleged,  even  in  this  country,  that  the 
Monroe  doctrine  never  had  any  binding  force.  In 
a  discussion  which  arose  in  1855-1856  in  relation  to 


THE  INTER-OCEANIC  CANAL.  49 

its  applicability  to  Central  American  affairs,  par- 
ticular efforts  were  made,  chiefly  by  Whig  states- 
men and  writers,  to  limit  its  extent.  One  writer,  in 
particular,  in  the  North  American  Review,  argued 
that  this  doctrine  was  practically  nothing  more  than 
a  ~brutum  fulmen,  that  it  ' '  was  intended  to  meet 
a  particular  contingency  of  events,  and  therefore 
passed  away  with  the  occasion  which  called  it 
forth."  It  is  true  that  this  doctrine  has  never  re- 
ceived by  formal  declaration  the  express  sanction 
of  the  legislative  branch  of  the  government.  As 
Mr.  Seward  well  observed,  in  the  debate  upon  the 
subject  in  the  United  States  Senate,  in  1855,  this 
was  largely  owing  to  the  fact  that  it  is  an  abstract 
principle,  with  respect  to  which  no  occasion  of  prac- 
tical exigency  had  then  arisen  calling  for  Congres- 
sional legislation. 

The  mere  fact,  however,  that  the  Monroe  doctrine 
has  never  received  the  formal  indorsement  of  Con- 
gress, has  neither  diminished  its  moral  effect,  nor 
impaired  its  practical  efficacy  whenever  the  oppor- 
tunity for  its  assertion  has  occurred. 

The  French  invasion  of  Mexico  presented  a  con- 
spicuous instance  of  its  application.  The  presence 
of  General  Sheridan  on  our  south-western  frontier, 
with  seventy  thousand  men,  a  part  of  the  great 
army  placed  in  the  field  by  the  order  of  Congress 
for  the  national  defense,  effectually  dispensed  with 
4 


50  THE  INTER-OUEANIC  CANAL. 

the  necessity  of  specific  legislation  to  secure  the 
withdrawal  of  the  French  forces. 

The  Monroe  doctrine,  in  short,  is  simply  the  ex- 
tension to  all  the  political  communities  of  the  New 
World  of  the  declaration  made  by  our  ancestors 
for  the  British  colonies  in  1776,  that  they  were, 
"and  of  right  ought  to  be  free  and  independent 
states."  Hence  its  firm  and  profound  hold  on  the 
popular  heart  and  will  of  this  country. 

The  vast  moral  influence  resulting  from  the  mere 
enunciation  of  principles  of  public  policy  by  the 
American  Executive,  is  well  illustrated  by  the  ex- 
tent to  which  Washington's  Farewell  Address  has 
shaped  the  foreign  and  domestic  policy  of  this  re- 
public. In  very  many  important  particulars  that 
document  has  been  as  efficacious  as  if  it  had  been 
embodied  in  our  statutes. 

It  woiild  be  absurd  to  argue  that  that  paper  is 
entitled  to  no  consideration,  because  it  was  never 
formally  approved  by  a  resolution  of  Congress. 
Such,  however,  is  the  only  objection  of  any  real 
weight  which  has  ever  been  made  against  the  Mon- 
roe doctrine. 

In  order  to  understand  the  full  weight  and  import 
of  this  principle,  it  is  proper  to  refer  to  the  manner 
in  which  it  was  received  in  Europe  at  the  time  it 
was  promulgated.  N"ever  did  any  American  state 
paper,  except  the  Declaration  of  Independence,  ex- 


THE  INTER-OCEANIC  CANAL.  51 

cite  greater  interest  there.  "It  was,"  says  Simmer, 
"upon  all  tongues;  the  press  was  full  of  it;  the 
securities  of  Spanish  America  rose  in  the  market  ; 
the  agents  of  Spanish  America  were  happy."  Mr. 
Brougham  said  in  his  place  in  Parliament,  "  An 
event  has  recently  happened  than  which  none  has 
ever  dispersed  greater  joy,  exultation,  and  gratitude 
over  all  the  free  men  of  Europe ;  that  event,  which 
is  decisive  on  the  subject,  is  the  language  held  with 
respect  to  Spanish  America  in  the  message  of  the 
President  of  the  United  States." 

Sir  James  Mackintosh  seems  to  have  understood 
the  full  scope  and  true  meaning  of  the  language 
used  by  President  Monroe.  Speaking  in  reference 
to  it,  he  said:  "That  wise  government,  in  grave  but 
determined  language,  and  with  the  reasonable  but 
deliberate  tone  that  becomes  true  courage,  proclaims 
the  principles  of  her  policy,  and  makes  known  the 
cases  in  which  the  care  of  her  own  safety  will  com- 
pel her  to  take  up  arms  for  the  defense  of  other 
States.  I  have  already  observed  its  coincidence 
with  the  declarations  of  England,  which  indeed  is 
perfect,  if  allowance  be  made  for  the  deeper,  or  at 
least  more  immediate  interest  in  the  independence 
of  South  America  which  near  neighborhood  gives 
the  United  States.  This  coincidence  of  the  two 
great  English  commonwealths  (for  so  I  delight  to 
call  them,  and  I  heartily  pray  that  they  may  be  for- 


62  THE  INTER-OCEANIC  CANAL. 

ever  united  in  the  cause  of  justice  and  liberty)  can- 
not be  contemplated  without  the  utmost  pleasure  by 
every  enlightened  citizen  of  the  earth." 

The  boldness  of  President  Monroe  in  assuming  the 
ground  he  did  was  worthy  of  all  admiration.  Well- 
founded  rumors  were  then  current  as  to  the  designs 
of  the  great  powers  of  continental  Europe.  The 
brief  reports  of  the  discussions  of  the  subject  in  Mr. 
Monroe's  cabinet,  which  have  come  down  to  ils, 
show  that  this  government  had  grave  fears  of  Euro- 
pean intervention  in  American  affairs  in  a  manner 
exceedingly  dangerous  to  our  national  safety.  Thus 
John  Quincy  Adams  in  his  diary  mentions  as  among 
the  probable  schemes  of  the  Holy  Alliance,  the  seiz- 
ure of  California,  Peru,  and  Chili,  by  Russia;  of 
Mexico  by  France,  and  of  Cuba  by  England.  It 
was  thought  to  be  well  established  that  France  had 
been  intriguing  for  the  establishment  of  monarchies 
in  Mexico,  and  in  Buenos  Ayres,  under  princes  of 
the  house  of  Bourbon. 

Mr.  Adams  had  apparently  very  full  and  trust- 
worthy information  as  to  certain  designs  of  the  great 
powers  threatening  to  our  country.  Thus  he  learned 
from  a  letter  from  Mr.  Gallatin  that  the  French  Min- 
ister of  Foreign  Affairs,  M.  Hyde  de  Neuville,  had 
said  to  him  in  the  hearing  of  ten  or  twelve  persons 
that  if  we  did  not  yield  to  the  claim  of  France  under 
the  eighth  article  of  the  Louisiana  Convention,  she 


THE  INTER-OCEANIC  CANAL.  53 

ought  to  go  and  take  the  country  back,  and  that  she 
had  a  strong  party  there.  Such  things  show  the 
gravity  of  the  situation  at  that  time  and  the  dangers 
then  at  our  own  doors. 

The  apprehensions  of  our  statesmen  were  not  lim- 
ited to  the  prospects  of  foreign  intervention  alone. 
They  included  also  the  perils  of  European  coloniza- 
tion upon  the  American  continents.  And  this  con- 
stitutes the  other  branch  of  this  subject  as  it  is 
treated  in  the  celebrated  message  of  President  Mon- 
roe. Mr.  Webster  thus  forcibly  states  the  founda- 
tion upon  which  this  principle  of  the  Monroe  doc- 
trine rests  : 

' '  Great  and  practical  inconveniences  it  was  feared 
might  be  apprehended  from  the  establishment  of 
new  colonies  in  America,  having  a  European  origin 
and  a  European  connection.  Attempts  of  that  kind, 
it  was  obvious,  might  possibly  be  made  amidst  the 
changes  that  were  taking  place  in  Mexico,  as  well  as 
in  the  more  southern  states.  Mexico  bounds  us  on 
a  vast  line  from  the  Gulf  of  Mexico  to  the  Pacific 
Ocean.  There  are  many  reasons  why  it  is  not  to  be 
desired  by  us  that  an  establishment  under  the  pro- 
tection of  a  different  power  should  occupy  any  por- 
tion of  that  space" 

There  is  abundant  contemporary  testimony  to  the 
enthusiasm  with  which  the  announcement  of  the 
Monroe  doctrine  was  received  among  our  people. 


54  THE  INTER-OCEANIC  CANAL. 

They  felt  its  evident  and  lasting  applicability  to 
American  affairs  ;  and  that  this  profound  conviction 
of  our  people  was  not  a  mere  evanescent  feeling,  born 
of  the  circumstances  of  the  hour,  is  shown  by  the 
unanimity  with  which  the  reassertion  of  the  princi- 
ple is  now  demanded  throughout  the  length  and 
breadth  of  the  land.  To  this  manly  declaration  of 
rights  Americans  of  all  shades  of  political  opinion 
have  always  subscribed.  In  the  debate  on  the  Pa- 
nama mission,  in  the  House  of  Representatives,  Mr. 
Webster,  in  speaking  of  the  popular  approbation  of 
the  Monroe  doctrine,  said  : 

"It  met  with  the  entire  concurrence  and  the  hearty 
approbation  of  the  country.  The  tone  in  which  it 
was  uttered  found  a  corresponding  response  in  the 
breasts  of  the  free  people  of  the  United  States.  The 
people  saw,  and  they  rejoiced  to  see,  that,  on  a  fit  oc- 
casion, our  weight  had  been  thrown  into  the  right 
scale,  and  that,  without  departing  from  our  duty,  we 
had  done  something  useful  and  something  effectual 
for  the  cause  of  civil  liberty. 

"One  general  glow  of  exultation,  one  universal 
feeling  of  the  gratified  love  of  liberty,  one  conscious 
and  proud  perception  of  the  consideration  which  the 
country  possessed,  and  of  the  respect  and  honor 
which  belonged  to  it,  pervades  all  her  sons." 

John  Quincy  Adams,  who  at  least  assisted  at  the 
council  board  at  which  the  doctrine  was  originally 


THE  INTER-OCEANIC  CANAL.  55 

considered  and  put  into  shape,  if  he  did  not  himself 
formulate  it,  by  no  means  understood  it  to  be  limited 
to  the  condition  of  affairs  which  existed  in  1823. 
Writing  to  Mr.  Gallatin  on  the  20th  of  March,  1827, 
Mr.  Adams  remarks  : 

"As  the  assertion  of  this  principle  is  an  attitude 
which  the  American  hemisphere  must  assume,  it  is 
one  wliichno  European  Tias  tlie  right  to  question; 
and  if  the  inference  drawn  from  it  of  danger  to  ex- 
isting colonies  has  any  foundation,  it  can  only  be  on 
the  contingency  of  a  war,  which  we  shall  by  all 
means  avoid." 

Mr.  Jefferson,  on  the  24th  of  October,  1823,  wrote 
to  Mr.  Monroe  : 

"  Our  first  and  fundamental  maxim  should  be, 
never  to  entangle  ourselves  in  the  broils  of  Europe ; 
our  second,  never  to  suffer  Europe  to  meddle  with 
cis-atlantic  affairs."  He  thus  goes  even  further  than 
Mr.  Monroe  in  his  opposition  to  European  interfer- 
ence in  American  concerns.  In  the  same  letter, 
speaking  of  the  proposed  policy,  he  says  : 

"  Its  object  is  to  introduce  and  establish  the  Amer- 
ican system  of  keeping  out  of  our  land  all  foreign 
powers,  or  never  permitting  those  of  Europe  to  in- 
termeddle with  the  affairs  of  our  nations.  It  is  to 
maintain  our  own  principle,  not  to  depart  from  it." 

These  views  contemplate  the  exercise  of  a  practical 
protectorate  over  all  the  Spanish-American  States. 


56  THE  INTER-OCEANIC  CANAL. 

Mr.  Jefferson  argues  in  decided  opposition  to  "the 
transfer  to  any  power  by  conquest,  cession,  or  acqui- 
sition in  any  other  way,  of  any  of  the  Spanish- 
American  States." 

Mr.  Webster  regarded  the  message  of  1823  not 
only  as  of  vast  importance  to  the  nation,  but  also  as 
embodying  principles  of  public  policy  of  permanent 
applicability.  In  a  speech  in  Congress  on  this  sub- 
ject, he  said : 

"  The  country  has,  in  my  judgment,  a  very  high 
honor  connected  with  that  occurrence,  which  we  may 
maintain  or  which  we  may  sacrifice.  I  look  up6n  it 
as  part  of  its  treasures  of  reputation,  and,  for  one,  I 

intend  to  guard  it 

Sir,  I  look  on  the  message  of  December,  1823,  as 
forming  a  bright  page  in  our  history.  I  will  help 
neither  to  erase  it  nor  to  tear  it  out ;  nor  shall  it  be, 
by  any  act  of  mine,  blurred  or  blotted.  It  did  honor 
to  the  sagacity  of  the  government,  and  I  will  not 
diminish  that  honor.  It  elevated  the  hopes  and 
gratified  the  patriotism  of  the  people.  Over  those 
hopes  I  will  not  bring  a  mildew,  nor  will  I  put  that 
gratified  patriotism  to  shame." 

Mr.  W.  H.  Trescot,  whose  contributions  to  the 
history  of  American  diplomacy  constitute  so  valu- 
able a  part  of  the  literature  of  our  country,  refers 
to  the  Monroe  doctrine  in  terms  which  indicate  that 
he  regards  it  not  as  a  mere  expression  of  opinion 


THE  INTER-OCEANIC  CANAL.  57 

upon  a  temporary  occasion,  but  as  the  promulgation 
of  a  principle  for  our  enduring  guidance  in  our  na- 
tional foreign  policy.  In  his  history  of  the  diplo- 
macy of  the  administrations  of  Washington  and 
Adams,  he  says,  speaking  of  the  first  generation  of 
statesmen  produced  by  our  country  : 

"With  rare  courage  and  temper  and  wisdom, 
they  had  laid  broad  the  foundations  of  a  great 
country,  and  with  singular  good  fortune,  had  been 
permitted  to  perfect  the  government  which  they  had 
initiated.  For  more  than  a  quarter  of  a  century,  the 
men  who  framed  the  Constitution  were  allowed  to 
administer  it ;  and  having  thus  formed  it  in  infancy, 
and  moulded  its  youth,  they  retired  one  after  an- 
other from  the  scenes  of  their  great  achievements, 
leaving  to  a  new  generation  the  responsibility  of  its 
mature  manhood.  But,  as  if  to  consecrate  with  the 
grace  of  their  final  benediction  its  foremost  step,  it 
was  granted  to  Mr.  Monroe,  the  last  of  the  vener- 
able company,  to  inaugurate,  by  Ms  famous  decla- 
ration, the  mgorous  commencement  of  our  national 
life.  From  the  date  of  that  declaration,  our  foreign 
policy,  if  it  has  not  taken  a  higher  tone,  has  at  least 
expressed  itself  in  a  more  systematic  development." 

It  may,  however,  well  be  questioned  whether  the 
interests  of  the  present  administration,  under  the 
peculiar  circumstances  of  an  existing  emergency 
calling  for  the  most  energetic  expression  of  our  tra- 


68  THE  WTER-OCEANIC  CANAL. 

ditional  policy,  is  not  open  to  just  criticism.  Mak- 
ing every  allowance  for  the  fact  that  the  inception 
of  action  of  the  character  suggested  is  ordinarily 
secret,  and  that  the  administration  has  appreciated 
and  is  preparing  to  act  upon  the  emergency,  yet  it  is 
no  less  true  that  several  months  have  passed  away 
since  the  necessity  for  action  became  manifest,  and 
preparation  has  not  culminated  in  fruition. 

There  are  requirements  of  national  importance 
which  do  not  admit  of  an  hour's  delay.  This  is 
one  of  them.  Affairs  have  advanced  during  the  last 
six  months  on  the  Isthmus  of  Darien  to  a  stage 
where  negotiation  and  diplomacy  are  wholly  inap- 
propriate and  cannot  possibly  avail.  While  the 
necessity  has  always  existed  for  our  control  of  the 
thoroughfare  to  our  western  coasts,  events  have  now 
made  that  necessity  instant  and  imperious.  It  can 
be  trifled  with  no  longer. 

The  Monroe  doctrine  was  reaffirmed  by  Mr.  Polk 
in  his  message  to  Congress  of  December  2d,  1845. 
He  says : 

"In  the  existing  circumstances  of  the  world  the 
present  is  deemed  a  proper  occasion  to  reiterate  and 
reaffirm  the  principle  avowed  by  Mr.  Monroe,  and 
to  state  my  cordial  concurrence  in  its  wisdom  and 
sound  policy.  Existing  rights  of  every  nation  should 
be  respected ;  but  it  is  due  alike  to  our  safety  and 
our  interests  that  the  efficient  protection  of  our  laws 


THE  INTER-OCEANIC  CANAL.  59 

should  be  extended  over  our  whole  territorial  limits ; 
and  it  should  be  distinctly  announced  to  the  world 
as  our  settled  policy,  that  no  future  European  col- 
ony or  dominion  shall,  with  our  consent,  be  planted 
or  established  on  any  part  of  the  North  American 
continent." 

A  great  canal  corporation,  controlled  in  Europe, 
and  under  European  laws,  would  inevitably  exercise 
dominion  in  Central  America,  if  established  there. 

Mr.  Cass,  a  statesman  whose  accurate  and  exten- 
sive knowledge  of  the  history  and  spirit  of  the  for- 
eign policy  of  this  country  should  entitle  his  opin- 
ions to  great  weight,  in  a  debate  in  the  Senate  of 
the  United  States  on  the  28th  of  January,  1856,  used 
the  following  language  in  regard  to  the  extent  and 
applicability  of  the  Monroe  doctrine  : 

"It  is  inexplicable,  sir,  that  any  one  could  sup- 
pose that  these  declarations  had  reference  only  to 
the  peculiar  position  of  the  Spanish  colonies.  The 
first  had,  but  the  second  was  addressed  to  all  na- 
tions, and  was  intended  to  operate  during  all  time. 
It  was  the  annunciation  of  a  new  line  of  policy.  On 
what  was  it  founded  ?  On  the  situation  of  our 
country,  and  of  the  various  states  of  this  continent, 
which  demanded  a  system,  as  Mr.  Jefferson  said, 
'separate  and  apart  from  that  of  Europe.'  " 

Mr.  Buchanan,  in  his  "History  of  the  Origin  and 
Nature  of  the  Monroe  Doctrine,"  says : 


60  THE  INTER-OCEANIC  CANAL. 

"  It  soon  became  a  canon  of  faith  for  the  Ameri- 
can people,  and  they  placed  it  side  by  side  with 
their  hostility  to  the  imprisonment  of  American  sea- 
men, and  to  the  search  of  American  vessels  on  the 
high  seas." 

Although  the  doctrine  in  question  is  hostile  to  the 
extension  of  European  influence  upon  this  conti- 
nent, it  has  been  constantly  recognized  by  Euro- 
pean writers  as  a  weighty  protest  against  all  inter- 
ference by  foreign  powers  upon  the  American  conti- 
nent. 

Sir  Edward  Creasy,  in  his  work  on  "Internation- 
al Law,"  while  denying  the  validity  of  the  Monroe 
doctrine,  admits  that  there  are  strong  proofs  of  its 
prevalence  in  the  United  States,  and  that  the  United 
States  "has  at  times  assumed  the  position  of  the  ex- 
clusively leading  power  of  the  New  World." 

Commander  Pirn,  E.  IN".,  in  his  "  Gate  of  the  Pa- 
cific," refers  to  the  doctrine  as  designed  to  secure 
for  the  United  States  ' '  the  sole  and  exclusive  right 
to  the  commerce  of  the  New  World."  This  writer 
perhaps  gives  us  credit  for  more  sagacity  in  our  for- 
eign policy  than  we  are  entitled  to.  The  wisdom  of 
our  people  has  not  been  conspicuously  shown  of  late 
years  in  the  development  of  American  commerce. 

A  writer  in  the  London  Quarterly  Review  for 
January,  1862,  said,  "President  Pierce,  when  he 
came  into  office,  avowed  his  adherence  to  what  is 


THE  INTER-OCEANIC  CANAL.  61 

called  the  Monroe  doctrine,  which  in  effect  amounts 
to  this, — that  no  European  power  has  the  right  to 
interfere  with  any  part  of  the  continent  of  America 
south  of  the  frontier  of  Canada,  Indeed,  we  are 
not  sure  that  it  even  excludes  Canada." 

In  the  same  year,  a  writer  in  the  London  Times, 
referring  to  the  French  invasion  of  Mexico,  said : 

' '  It  would  be  vain  to  deny  that  the  feeling  of  the 
merchants  of  London  is,  that  on  the  whole,  so  far  as 
the  affair  has  proceeded,  the  Emperor  Napoleon  has 
done  a  great  service,  both  politically  and  commer- 
cially, to  the  world ;  politically  in  confirming  the 
previous  action  of  Spain  in  extinguishing  the  Mon- 
roe doctrine,  and  commercially  in  restoring  the  inter- 
course of  nations  with  a  territory,  which,  from  its 
geographical  position  and  mineral  wealth,  can  claim 
a  general  and  almost  exceptional  importance." 

If  we  turn  to  the  diplomatic  history  of  the  United 
States,  we  find  the  Monroe  doctrine  unequivocally  rec- 
ognized in  the  instructions  issued  to  the  ministers  of 
the  United  States  whenever  the  occasion  demanded. 

Mr.  Clay,  as  Secretary  of  State  under  Mr.  Adams, 
in  his  instructions  to  Mr.  Poinsett,  the  delegate  to 
the  Panama  Congress,  dated  May  25,  1825,  used  the 
following  language  with  reference  to  one  branch  of 
the  Monroe  doctrine : 

"The  countries  in  which  any  such  new  establish- 
ments might  be  attempted  are  now  open  to  the  en- 


Q2  THE  INTER-OCEANIC  CANAL. 

terprise  and  commerce  of  all  Americans,  and  the 
justice  and  propriety  cannot  be  recognized  of  arbi- 
trarily limiting  and  circumscribing  that  enterprise 
and  commerce  by  the  act  of  voluntarily  planting  a 
new  colony,  without  the  consent  of  America,  under 
the  auspices  of  foreign  powers  belonging  to  another 
and  a  distant  continent.  Europe  would  be  indig- 
nant at  an  attempt  to  plant  a  colony  on  any  part  of 
her  shores ;  and  her  justice  must  perceive,  in  the 
rule  contended  for,  only  perfect  reciprocity." 

Mr.  Cass,  when  Secretary  of  State  under  Mr.  Bu- 
chanan, instructed  Mr.  Lamar,  our  minister  at  that 
time  to  Central  America,  in  the  following  terms, 
with  reference  to  this  subject : 

"But  the  establishment  of  a  political  protectorate 
by  any  one  of  the  powers  of  Europe  over  any  of 
the  independent  states  of  this  continent,  or,  in  other 
words,  the  introduction  of  a  scheme  of  policy  which 
would  carry  with  it  a  right  to  interfere  in  their  con- 
cerns, is  a  measure  to  which  the  United  States  have 
long  since  avowed  their  opposition,  and  which, 
should  the  attempt  be  made,  they  will  resist  by  all 
the  means  in  their  power. 

"The  reasons  for  the  attitude  they  have  assumed 
have  been  promulgated,  and  are  everywhere  well 
known.  There  is  no  need  upon  this  occasion  to  re- 
capitulate them.  They  are  founded  upon  the  polit- 
ical circumstances  of  the  American  continent,  which 


THE  INTER-OCEANIC  CANAL.  63 

has  interests  of  its  own,  and  ought  to  have  a  policy 
of  its  own  disconnected  from  many  of  the  questions 
which  are  continually  presenting  themselves  in  Eu- 
rope concerning  the  balance  of  power,  and  other  sub- 
jects of  controversy  arising  out  of  the  condition  of 
its  states,  and  which  often  find  their  solution  or 
their  postponement  in  war." 

On  the  31st  of  December,  1855,  Mr.  Cass  said  in 
the  Senate,  that  he  had  always  been  in  favor  of 
asserting  and  maintaining  the  Monroe  doctrine,  and 
that  Congress  had  never  indorsed  it  only  because 
it  was  thought  unnecessary  to  assert  an  abstraction. 
He  furthermore  said  on  the  same  occasion,  that  it 
was  our  duty  to  maintain  "  the  continental  rights 
of  our  position." 

The  joint  proposition,  in  1852,  of  Great  Britain 
and  France  to  enter  into  a  tripartite  convention  with 
the  United  States  to  guarantee  in  perpetuity  to 
Spain  the  possession  of  Cuba,  afforded  Mr.  Everett, 
then  Secretary  of  State,  an  opportunity  to  assert 
the  principles  of  the  Monroe  doctrine,  of  which  he 
promptly  availed  himself. 

His  language'  is  guarded  and  moderate,  but  none 
the  less  forcible  on  that  account.  He  says,  in  de- 
clining to  enter  into  the  proposed  convention,  that  it 
"would be  of  no  value  unless  it  were  lasting;  ac- 
cordingly its  terms  express  a  perpetuity  of  purpose 
and  obligation." 


64  THE  INTER-OCEANIC  CANAL. 

Mr.  Everett  then  expresses  doubts  as  to  whether 
it  would  be  competent  for  the  treaty-making  powers 
to  enter  into  such  an  agreement.  Referring  to  the 
fact  that  in  1803  the  United  States  purchased  Loui- 
siana of  France,  and  in  1819  Florida  of  Spain,  he 
observes  that — 

"  The  United  States  would,  by  the  proposed  con- 
vention, disable  themselves  from  making  an  acquisi- 
tion which  might  take  place  without  any  disturb- 
ance of  existing  foreign  relations,  and  in  the  natural 
order  of  things  ; "  and,  calling  attention  to  the  great 
law  of  American  growth  and  progress,  to  the  pro- 
tection of  which  the  Monroe  doctrine  is  so  essential, 
he  adds : 

"It  would  seem  impossible  for  anyone  who  re- 
flects upon  the  events  glanced  at  in  this  note,  to 
mistake  the  law  of  American  growth  and  progress, 
or  think  that  it  can  ultimately  be  arrested  by  a 
convention  like  that  proposed.  In  the  judgment 
of  the  President,  it  would  be  as  easy  to  throw  a 
dam  from  Cape  Florida  to  Cuba  to  stop  the  flow  of 
the  Gulf  Stream,  as  to  attempt  by  a  compact  like 
this  to  fix  the  fortunes  of  Cuba  for  all  coming 
time." 

The  prophetic  language  of  the  Abbe  Gregoire, 
writing  in  Paris  in  1808,  anticipates  these  views. 
"The  American  Continent,  asylum  of  liberty,"  he 
writes,  "is  moving  toward  an  order  of  things  which 


THE  INTER-OCEANIC  CANAL.  05 

will  be  common  to  the  Antilles,  and  the  course  of 
which  all  the  powers  combined  cannot  arrest." 

M.  Michel  Chevalier,  who  contracted  in  1868,  as 
we  have  shown,  with  Nicaragua,  for  the  construc- 
tion of  a  French  ship  canal,  urges  in  his  work  on 
Mexico,  published  in  1864,  the  importance  of  the 
establishment  of  the  empire  of  Maximilian  as  a 
means  of  effectually  correcting  the  "American  view 
of  the  force  of  the  Monroe  doctrine."  And  Sir  Ed- 
ward Creasy,  already  referred  to,  says,  in  speaking 
of  the  French  occupation  of  Mexico  : 

''The  United  States  (occupied  by  their  own  civil 
war,  which  was  then  raging)  did  not  actually  send 
troops  to  oppose  the  French  in  Mexico,  but  they 
steadily  refused  to  recognize  Maximilian,  or  any 
government,  except  a  republican  government,  in 
Mexico  ;  and  the  language  of  their  statesmen  exhib- 
ited the  fullest  development  of  the  Monroe  doctrine. 
In  a  circular  addressed  by  the  American  minister, 
Mr.  Seward,  to  the  legations  of  the  United  States, 
he  said  that  'In  the  President's  judgment  the  eman- 
cipation of  the  American  continent  from  the  control 
of  Europe  has  been  the  principal  feature  of  the  last 
half  century.' 

"In  April,  1864,  the  Chamber  of  Representatives 
at  Washington  voted  unanimously  a  declaration 
that  '  It  is  not  fitting  for  the  people  of  the  United 
States  to  recognize  a  monarchical  government  erected 


66  THE  INTER-OCEANIC  CANAL. 

on  the  ruins  of  a  republican  government  in  America 
under  the  auspices  of  any  European  power  what- 
ever.' " 

That  the  incorporation  by  Great  Britain,  in  1867, 
of  all  her  North  American  possessions  as  one  great 
province — the  Dominion  of  Canada — was  clearly  in 
derogation  of  the  spirit  of  the  Monroe  doctrine, 
must  be  conceded.  The  establishment  of  the  Do- 
minion of  Canada  was  intended  to  strengthen  the 
hold  of  a  European  power  upon  territory  so  sit- 
uated geographically  that  its  acquisition  by  this 
country  has  been  regarded  by  eminent  British  states- 
men as  only  a  question  of  time.  The  event  did  not 
pass  unnoticed  in  this  country,  but  was  the  occasion 
of  an  extreme  and  pointed  indorsement  of  the  Mon- 
roe doctrine  by  the  popular  branch  of  Congress. 

A  resolution  was  unanimously  adopted  by  the 
House  of  Representatives,  declaring  the  uneasiness 
of  the  United  States  in  the  contemplation  of  "  such 
a  vast  conglomeration  of  American  states  established 
on  the  monarchical  principle — such  a  proceeding  be- 
ing in  contravention  of  the  traditionary  and  con- 
stantly declared  principles  of  the  United  States, 
and  endangering  their  most  important  interest." 

Mr.  Seward,  in  1856,  predicted  that  Canada  would 
belong  to  us  within  fifty  years  ;  and  in  making  the 
subsequent  acquisition  of  Alaska,  this  far-seeing 
statesman,  then  Secretary  of  State,  looked  forward 


THE  INTER-OCEANIC  CANAL.  67 

to  the  consummation  of  a  plan  of  territorial  acqui- 
sition which  embraced  the  continent. 

No  !  the  message  of  December  3,  1823,  was  by  no 
means  a  mere  high-sounding  state  paper  !  It  put  an 
end  to  projects  very  dangerous  to  the  safety  of  the 
United  States.  It  created  in  America  a  lasting  sen- 
timent of  opposition  to  foreign  intrusion  upon  the 
affairs  of  the  western  continents.  It  made  emphatic 
proclamation  to  Europe  that  she  would  never  more 
be  permitted  to  aggrandize  herself  at  the  expense  of 
this  hemisphere.  The  grave  consequences  which 
followed  the  simple  promulgation  of  our  foreign 
policy,  as  outlined  by  the  declaration  of  President 
Monroe,  were  not  the  empty  reverberations  of  a  bru- 
tumfulmen.  In  the  language  of  Mr.  Cass : 

"  This  great  cis-atlantic  principle  does  not  derive 
its  strength  from  its  origin,  or  its  author ;  it  rests 
upon  a  surer  foundation,  upon  the  cordial  concur- 
rence of  the  American  people,  and  is  destined  to  be 
a  broad  line  upon  the  chart  of  their  policy.'' 


THE  GENERAL  FOREIGN  POLICY  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES. 


THE  foreign  policy  of  the  United  States  was  in  its 
earliest  stages  largely  shaped  by  the  dread  of  foreign 
interference. 

A  conservative  and  neutral  policy  was  undoubt- 
edly the  part  of  wisdom.  There  were,  however, 
many  influences  which  tended  to  draw  us  into  dan- 
gerous foreign  connections.  There  was  a  party  in 
the  country  which,  at  the  close  of  the  war  of  inde- 
pendence, sought  the  establishment  of  a  monarchy 
under  the  sovereignty  of  Washington,  and  plans 
were  afoot  for  offering  the  crown  to  Prince  Henry  of 
Prussia,  even  after  the  adoption  of  the  Constitution 
of  1789. 

The  wealth  and  intelligence  of  its  members  gave 
this  faction  greater  strength  than  its  mere  numerical 
numbers  indicated,  and  it  was  long  feared  that  it 
might  invite  foreign  interference  for  the  accomplish- 
ment of  its  purpose. 


THE  INTER-OCEANIC  CANAL.  69 

The  weakness  of  the  executive  branch  of  the  na- 
tional government,  not  only  under  the  Confedera- 
tion but  even  under  the  Constitution,  with  respect 
to  the  administration  of  foreign  affairs,  was  pecul- 
iarly felt.  The  power  of  declaring  war  was  vested 
in  Congress  alone,  and  the  treaty-making  power  in 
the  President  and  Senate  jointly  ;  and  the  govern- 
ment found  it  difficult  to  act  in  the  conduct  of  its 
foreign  affairs  with  the  promptness  and  vigor  of 
powers  whose  executives  were  not  so  restricted. 
The  inconveniences  of  these  constitutional  provisions 
are  now  less  felt  than  at  a  time  when  the  open  hos- 
tility and  secret  intrigues  of  foreign  powers  were  a 
source  of  constant  apprehension  to  us. 

Our  weakness  in  this  respect  was  made  evident 
during  the  commotions  produced  by  the  French 
Revolution,  and  especially  during  the  difficulties 
which  grew  out  of  the  war  between  England  and 
France.  The  condition  of  our  country  at  that  pe- 
riod is  graphically  described  by  Wharton : 

"To  draw  the  American  people  from  their  neu- 
trality, first  by  coaxing,  then  by  bullying,  had  been 
the  object  of  each  of  the  belligerent  powers.  Provo- 
cations to  war,  as  well  as  solicitations  for  alliance, 
had  been  given  on  both  sides,  and  as  alliance  with 
both,  or  war  with  both  seemed  impracticable,  the 
question  was  which  to  choose.  Of  all  questions  by 
which  a  country  can  be  agitated,  that  as  to  which 


70  THE  INTER-OCEANIC  CANAL. 

of  two  foreign  alliances  is  to  be  accepted  is  the 
most  demoralizing;  and  to  the  worst  type  of  this 
dangerous  disease  the  temperament  of  the  American 
people  rendered  them  susceptible."  * 

The  efforts  of  French  emissaries  to  force  upon  us 
an  alliance  with  France  form  a  familiar  and  humil- 
iating chapter  in  the  history  of  the  country. 

M.  Genet,  the  first  minister  of  the  French  Repub- 
lic to  the  United  States,  on  landing  at  Charleston, 
S.  C.,  in  April,  1793,  forthwith  opened  a  correspond- 
ence with  American  citizens,  urging  a  determined 
opposition  to  the  policy  of  Washington's  adminis- 
tration. This  purpose  he  vigorously  pursued  in  the 
face  of  the  proclamation  of  neutrality,  and  by  direct 
appeals  to  the  passions  of  the  populace  ;  privateers 
were  fitted  out  at  Charleston,  to  cruise  against  ves- 
sels of  nations  at  peace  with  the  United  States  ;  hos- 
tile expeditions  were  projected  against  Florida  and 
Louisiana,  the  provinces  of  Spain.  Insulting  and 
domineering  as  was  the  course  pursued  by  Genet,  a 
large  party  in  the  country  was  actually  willing  to 
see  the  nation  thus  humiliated  to  promote  the  in- 
terests of  a  foreign  power. 

On  the  other  hand,  there  was  a  party  scarcely  less 
submissive  to  English  interests.  It  was  composed 
chiefly  of  those  whose  latent  loyalty  to  England  had 
survived  the  war  which  separated  the  colonies  from 

*  Wharton's  American  State  Trials,  p.  7. 


THE  INTER-OCEANIG  CANAL.  71 

the  mother  country,  and  who  had  never  lost  their 
fondness  for  the  land  which  in  childhood  they  had 
been  taught  to  regard  as  their  home.  These  rival 
foreign  attachments  produced  very  disastrous  con- 
sequences. To  use  the  language  of  a  foreigner, 
quoted  by  Tucker  in  his  "Life  of  Jefferson,"  "the 
year  1800  found  many  French  and  many  English, 
but  few  Americans."  * 

So  utterly  wanting  in  national  pride  and  spirit 
were  our  countrymen  thought  to  be,  that  in  1791  the 
Spanish  governor  of  New  Orleans  made  a  proposi- 
tion to  Judge  Innis,  a  leading  citizen  of  Ohio,  look- 
ing to  the  secession  of  the  western  territory  from  the 
Union,  the  inducement  to  this  step  being  the  free 
navigation  of  the  Mississippi. 

Under  such  circumstances  the  Farewell  Address  of 
Washington  was  issued,  and  the  foreign  policy  of 
the  United  States  dates  from  its  promulgation.  Its 
wisdom  and  its  applicability  to  the  internal  condi- 
tion and  foreign  relations  of  the  country,  at  the 
time,  justifies  the  following  extract  from  its  states- 
manlike and  philosophical  expositions  of  our  duty 
as  a  people. 

"A  passionate  attachment  of  one  nation  for  an- 
other produces  a  variety  of  evils.  Sympathy  for  the 
favorite  nation,  facilitating  the  illusion  of  an  imag- 
inary common  interest  in  cases  where  no  real  com- 

*  2  Tucker's  Life  of  Jefferson,  p.  19. 


72  THE  INTER-OCEANIC  CANAL. 

mon  interest  exists,  and  infusing  into  one  the  enmi- 
ties of  the  other,  betrays  the  former  into  a  participa- 
tion in  the  quarrels  and  wars  of  the  latter,  without 
adequate  inducement  or  justification.  ...  It 
gives  to  ambitious,  corrupted,  or  deluded  citizens, 
who  devote  themselves  to  the  favorite  nation,  facility 
to  betray  or  sacrifice  the  interests  of  their  own  coun- 
try, without  odium,  sometimes  even  with  popular- 
ity. .  .  . 

"An  attachment  of  a  small  or  weak  toward  a 
great  and  powerful  nation,  dooms  the  former  to  be 
the  satellite  of  the  latter." 

It  was  the  language  of  devoted  and  exalted  pat- 
riotism addressed  to  a  people  whose  zealous  party 
complications  in  the  strife  of  France  and  England 
had  suppressed,  almost  destroyed,  the  sentiment  of 
attachment  to  their  own  country.  Equally  applica- 
ble to  the  relations  then  existing  between  the  United 
States  .and  European  powers  are  these  words,  in 
which  the  elementary  principles  of  our  foreign  pol- 
icy are  declared : 

"  Europe  has  a  set  of  primary  interests,  which 
to  us  have  no  or  a  very  remote  relation.  ,  .  . 
Hence,  therefore,  it  must  be  unwise  for  us  to  impli- 
cate ourselves  by  artificial  ties  in  the  ordinary  vicis- 
situdes of  her  politics,  or  the  ordinary  combinations 
of  her  friendships  or  enmities.  .  .  .  Why  quit 
our  own  to  stand  upon  foreign  ground?  .  .  . 


THE  INTER-OCEANIC  CANAL.  73 

Against  the  insidious  wiles  of  foreign  influence 
.  .  .  the  jealousy  of  a  free  people  ought  to  be 
constantly  awake.  .  .  ." 

Such  language,  however,  addressed  to  a  people  en- 
grossed in  the  consideration  of  exciting  domestic 
questions,  was  an  argument  against  the  adoption  of 
a  policy  looking  to  the  increase  of  the  power  and  in- 
fluence of  the  nation  by  prudent  and  well-consid- 
ered diplomatic  measures.  Sound  as  are  the  doc- 
trines laid  down,  a  strict  adherence  to  the  letter 
rather  than  the  spirit  of  the  advice  has  unquestion- 
ably done  much  to  render  our  foreign  policy  halting 
and  timid,  and  whenever  questions  affecting  our 
external  relations  have  arisen,  the  influence  of  the 
strict  construction  of  the  language  of  the  Farewell 
Address  has  been  felt.  When  the  question  of  the 
indorsement  of  the  Monroe  doctrine  was  under  con- 
sideration in  Congress,  in  1856,  Mr.  Cass,  with  his 
usual  astuteness,  pointed  to  the  real  considerations 
which  restrained  our  statesmen  from  the  formal 
sanction  of  a  declaration  so  necessary  to  the  protec- 
tion of  our  national  interests.  "It  was,"  said  Mr. 
Cass,  "  some  undefined  apprehension  that  if  we 
spoke  the  words  we  must  adhere  to  them,  and  that 
if  we  adhered  to  them  they  would  be  words  of  terri- 
ble import  to  our  country." 

As  is  w^ell  observed  by  Mr.  Trescot,  the  chief  feat- 
ure of  the  foreign  policy  of  the  United  States,  dur- 


74  THE  INTER-OCEANIC  CANAL. 

ing  the  early  history  of  the  nation,  was  its  nega- 
tive character ;  its  aim  was  to  prevent  rather  than  to 
accomplish.  The  truth  of  this  assertion  is  well  illus- 
trated by  the  history  of  our  diplomacy  during  the 
European  wars  which  followed  the  French  Revolu- 
tion. The  hesitating  and  inconsistent  spirit  of  our 
diplomacy  may  be  illustrated  by  leading  incidents 
throughout  its  entire  history. 

1.  In  May,  1818,  an  accredited  emissary  from  the 
Ionian  Islands  called  upon  Mr.  Rush,  then  the 
American  Minister  at  the  Court  of  St.  James,  to  ask 
if  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States  prohibited 
the  acquisition  of  foreign  territory.  Mr.  Rush  re- 
plied in  the  negative.  He  was  asked  if  it  would 
accord  with  our  policy  to  assume  a  protectorate 
over  the  Ionian  Islands,  and  informed  that  such  a 
protectorate  would  be  promptly  accepted.  Mr. 
Rush  summarily  declined  to  consider  the  proposi- 
tion, on  the  ground  that  its  acceptance  would  involve 
our  entrance  upon  the  arena  of  European  politics. 
This  was  a  reply  strictly  in  accordance  with  our  true 
policy  of  non-interference. 

A  refusal,  in  1823,  to  accept  the  proffered  annexa- 
tion of  Central  America,  rests  on  wholly  different 
grounds,  and  is  an  instance  of  the  singular  timidity 
of  our  foreign  policy.  It  is  thus  referred  to  by  Mr. 
Everett : 

"When  this  interesting  region,  a  country  more 


THE  INTER-OCEANIC  CANAL.  75 

than  twice  as  large  as  Great  Britain,  and  possessing 
resources  not  inferior  to  any  country  in  the  world, 
declared  its  independence  of  Spain,  and  formed, 
with  its  five  infant  republics,  a  federal  government, 
it  resolved,  by  the  unanimous  vote  of  its  representa- 
tives to  seek  admission  into  the  American  Union, 
and  sent  an  embassy  of  eight  of  its  most  re- 
spectable citizens  to  Washington  to  effect  that  ob- 
ject." This  was  a  case  for  interference.  Had  this 
offer  been  accepted,  it  would  have  solved,  once  for 
all,  the  problem  of  the  control  of  the  inter-oceanic 
canal. 

It  would  have  placed  the  United  States  in  that 
commanding  position  in  regard  to  the  commerce  of 
the  world  to  which  the  sagacity  of  Patterson,  one 
hundred  and  twenty  years  before,  had  pointed,  and 
given  us  control  of  what  he  aptly  described  as  the 
"  door  of  the  seas." 

The  treaty  by  which  Louisiana  was  acquired  in 
1803  forms  a  notable  exception  to  the  general  timid 
conservatism  which  characterized  the  conduct  of  our 
diplomacy  during  its  early  history,  and  by  estab- 
lishing the  constitutional  power  of  the  national  gov- 
ernment to  acquire  foreign  territory,  it  gave  a  wider 
scope  to  the  exercise  of  American  diplomacy  and 
statesmanship,  and  set  up  a  standing  precedent  for 
judicious  territorial  expansion. 

The  Louisiana  precedent  was  followed  in  1819  by 


76  THE  INTER-OCEANIC  VANAL. 

the  treaty  with  Spain  for  the  cession  of  Florida  to 
the  United  States. 

That  transaction,  although  not  very  creditable  to 
the  statesmanship  of  Monroe  and  his  cabinet,  cannot 
upon  the  whole  be  condemned  as  unwise  or  inexpe- 
dient. The  measure  was  severely  criticised  at  the 
time  in  Congress,  by  Mr.  Clay,  who  said  we  had 
bought  for  a  high  price  a  possession  which  must  in- 
evitably have  fallen  into  our  lap,  and  that  nothing 
would  have  been  lost  by  waiting  a  little  longer.  He 
called  attention  to  the  fact  that,  under  the  articles  by 
which  the  boundaries  were  fixed  between  Louisiana 
and  Mexico,  Texas  had  been  sacrificed  in  addition 
to  the  $30,000,000  needlessly,  as  he  claimed,  paid  for 
Florida.  In  the  same  debate,  Mr.  Clay  raised  the 
question  as  to  the  constitutional  power  of  the  treaty- 
making  branch  of  the  government  to  cede  territory 
belonging  to  the  nation.  In  the  same  connection,  re- 
ferring to  the  proposition  which  had  been  made  by 
Russia  to  mediate  in  the  settlement  of  our  troubles 
with  Spain,  Mr.  Clay  used  the  following  language  in 
relation  to  the  position  we  ought  to  assume  with 
reference  to  foreign  powers : 

"It  was  to  invite  further  interposition.  It  might 
in  the  process  of  time  create  in  the  bosom  of  our 
country  a  Russian  faction,  a  British  faction,  a  French 
faction.  Every  nation  ought  to  be  jealous  of  this 
species  of  interference,  whatever  was  its  form  of 


THE  INTER-OCEANIC  CANAL.  77 

government.  But  of  all  forms  of  government,  the 
united  testimony  of  all  history  admonished  a  repub- 
lic to  be  most  guarded  against  it.  From  the  mo- 
ment Philip  intermeddled  with  the  affairs  of  Greece, 
the  liberty  of  Greece  was  doomed  to  inevitable  de- 
struction." 

Great  as  was  the  influence  which  Thomas  Jefferson 
had  in  moulding  our  political  institutions,  and  in 
determining  the  spirit  of  their  administration,  he 
was  equally  influential  in  shaping  for  many  years 
our  foreign  policy.  The  weight  of  his  administra- 
tive authority,  except  in  the  case  of  Louisiana,  was 
thrown  in  favor  of  a  cautious  and  timorous  course 
with  reference  to  all  external  relations  of  the  coun- 
try. 

The  following  paragraph  from  his  notes  on  Vir- 
ginia seems  to  contain  the  principle  upon  which  he 
both  advised  and  conducted  the  administration  of 
our  foreign  affairs. 

"You  ask  me,"  he  writes,  "what  I  think  of  the 
expediency  of  encouraging  our  States  to  become 
commercial.  "Were  I  to  indulge  my  own  theory,  I 
wish  them  to  practice  neither  commerce  nor  naviga- 
tion ;  but  to  stand  with  regard  to  Europe  precisely 
on  the  footing  of  China." 

This  surprising  doctrine  of  foreign  policy  was  no 
mere  theory  with  Jefferson,  but  was  by  him  and  his 
personal  followers  carried  into  practice.  They  re- 


78  THE  INTER-OCEANIC  CANAL. 

fused  to  strengthen  the  navy,  and  failed  to  place  the 
army  upon  the  footing  dictated  by  the  commonest 
prudence  in  the  then  condition  of  the  country.  The 
disastrous  embargo  was  its  direct  and  immediate  con- 
sequence— a  measure  which  illustrates  how  little  the 
statesmen  of  that  day  knew  of  the  proper  manage- 
ment of  our  relations  with  foreign  powers.  The 
time  came  when  Jefferson  himself,  repenting  of  this 
undignified  and  unpatriotic  policy,  became  a  staunch 
champion  of  the  Monroe  doctrine. 

The  nominal  object  of  the  embargo  was  to  force 
England  and  France  to  revoke  the  orders  in  council 
and  the  Berlin  and  Milan  decrees.  It  utterly  failed 
to  accomplish  the  purpose  intended.  It  greatly  ben- 
efited England.  It  excited  no  gratitude  on  the  part 
of  France.  It  swept  from  the  ocean  ten  thousand 
American  vessels  engaged  in  a  profitable  carrying 
trade,  and  ruined,  almost  instantaneously,  our  valu- 
able and  widely  extended  commerce. 

The  evils  designed  to  be  remedied  by  this  measure, 
which  thus  ruined  our  commerce  and  destroyed  our 
shipping,  were  comparatively  trifling.  Of  our  ten 
thousand  vessels  not  more  than  an  average  of  one 
hundred  and  fifty  were  annually  captured,  and  of 
these  one-third  were  released.  Sound  policy  dic- 
tated the  increase  of  our  army  and  navy,  the 
strengthening  of  our  fortifications,  and  a  temporiz- 
ing course  no  longer  than  the  preparation  of  our  re- 


THE  INTER-OCEANIC  CANAL.  79 

sources  for  the  offensive  demanded.  Had  we  pur- 
sued this  policy,  it  is  certain  that  both  France  and 
England  would  ultimately  have  indemnified  us  in 
preference  to  seeing  us  resort  to  hostilities.  By  the 
embargo,  on  the  other  hand,  we  not  only  cut  off  our 
valuable  commerce  with  England  herself,  but  trans- 
ferred to  her  our  valuable  trade  with  China,  the  In- 
dies, Spain,  Portugal,  Sweden,  Norway,  and  Russia. 
More  than  this,  the  commerce  of  the  seas,  which  we 
so  recklessly  resigned,  England  took  possession  of 
at  once,  anticipating  in  this  way  a  more  than  ample 
indemnity  for  the  expenses  of  the  war  which  we 
subsequently  declared  against  her.  The  declaration 
of  war  in  1812  was  but  a  consequence  of  the  policy 
which  passed  the  embargo  act.  The  conduct  of  the 
war,  although  in  many  particulars  creditable  to  the 
bravery  and  patriotism  of  the  people,  upon  the 
whole  reflects  shame  upon  the  government,  which 
being  recklessly  engaged — without  an  army,  navy, 
fortifications,  officers,  or  credit — in  hostilities  with 
a  great  power,  ignominiously  suffered  the  national 
capital  to  be  captured,  imposed  a  burdensome  pub- 
lic debt  upon  the  republic,  and  found  itself  forced 
to  end  the  war  without  the  enforcement  of  a  single 
concession  from  its  adversary,  or  the  settlement  of 
a  single  contested  point.  Jefferson,  who  after  his 
term  as  President  expired,  continued  to  direct  the 
policy  of  his  party,  is  largely  responsible  for  the 


80  TUB  INTER-OCEANIC  CANAL, 

disastrous  consequences  of  the  embargo  and  the 
war.  His  prejudices  against  England  and  his  pas- 
sions as  a  partisan  misled  his  judgment.  When  free 
from  the  influence  of  such  feelings,  he  was  capable 
of  taking  enlarged  and  liberal  views  of  our  foreign 
policy,  as  is  shown  by  the  following  facts : 

1.  Jefferson  is  entitled  to  the  credit  of  having  pre- 
pared the  way  for  our  territorial  expansion,  by  the 
precedent  which  he  established  in  the  purchase  of 
Louisiana. 

2.  He  was  the  first  of  our  statesmen  to  comprehend 
the  vast  importance  to  American  interests  of  the 
inter-oceanic  canal.     In  1787-1789,  while  he  acted  as 
our  diplomatic  representative  at  Paris,  he  carried  on 
a  correspondence  with  Mr.  Carmichael,  the  Ameri- 
can charge  at  Madrid,  urging  him  to  obtain  as  much 
information  as  possible  in  regard  to  the  surveys 
made  by  the  Spanish  government,  for  a  canal  across 
the  Central  American  isthmus.     In  a  letter  to  Mr. 
Carmichael,  dated  Paris,  May  27th,  1788,  Mr.  Jeffer- 
son says  in  reference  to  the  matter,  "This  report  is 
to  me  a  Vast  desideratum  for  reasons  political  and 
philosophical." 

3.  If  not  the  author  of  the  Monroe  doctrine,  he  is 
entitled  to  the  credit  of  having  had  an  important 
share  in  putting  it  into  shape  by  his  advice  to  Mr. 
Monroe,  contained  in  his  letter  to  him  dated  Monti- 
cello,  October  24th,  1823. 


THE  INTER-OCEANIC  CANAL.  81 

4.  He  favored  the  acquisition  of  Cuba  by  the 
United  States.  On  the  3d  of  June,  1823,  he  wrote  to 
President  Monroe  in  reference  to  that  island,  saying, 
"Certainly  her  addition  to  our  confederacy  is  ex- 
actly what  is  wanting  to  round  our  power  as  a  nation 
to  the  point  of  its  utmost  interest."  He  afterward 
wrote  to  the  same  person  that  the  "  annexation  of 
Cuba  would  fill  up  the  measure  of  our  political  well- 
being." 

The  immediate  result  of  Mr.  Monroe's  consulta- 
tions with  Mr.  Jefferson  was  the  promulgation  of 
the  Monroe  doctrine,  which  terminated  an  inglorious 
epoch  of  the  history  of  the  country.  Mr.  Wharton,, 
in  his  introduction  to  the  "American  State  Trials," 
refers  with  just  pride  to  the  Monroe  declaration  in 
the  following  terms : 

"At  last  the  United  States,  which  fifty  years  ago 
could  hardly  keep  its  central  territory  from  being 
carried  away  under  its  very  eyes,  announced  to- 
Europe  that  it  would  consider  any  foreign  interfer- 
ence in  the  affairs  of  the  American  continent  as  a 
cause  of  war  ;  and  Europe  listened  and  acquiesced." 

The  Clayton-Bulwer  treaty  again  brought  the  con- 
sistency of  our  diplomacy  into  question.  Six  days 
after  the  signing  of  the  treaty  which  secured  to  us; 
California,  and  gave  us  command  of  the  Pacific  coast 
of  North  America,  England  seized  on  the  territory 
at  the  mouth  of  the  San  Juan  for  the  purpose  of  se- 
C 


82  THE  INTER-OCEANIC  CANAL. 

curing  the  control  of  the  transit  route  across  the 
Central  American  isthmus,  in  connection  with  the 
canal  projects  of  Prince  Louis  Napoleon,  then  under 
consideration  in  London.  The  seizure  was  a  clear 
infringement  of  the  Monroe  doctrine,  and  should 
have  been  resisted  emphatically.  It  really  led  only 
to  the  negotiation  of  the  so-called  Clayton-Bulwer 
treaty,  or,  more  properly  speaking,  Convention  of 
1850.  This  convention  contains  the  following  re- 
markable concession  : 

"  The  governments  of  the  United  States  and  Great 
Britain  hereby  declare  that  neither  the  one  nor  the 
other  will  obtain  or  maintain  for  itself  any  exclusive 
control  over  said  ship  canal ;  agreeing  that  neither 
will  ever  erect  or  maintain  any  fortifications  com- 
manding the  same,  or  in  the  vicinity  thereof,  or  oc- 
cupy, or  fortify,  or  colonize,  or  assume,  or  exercise 
any  dominion  over  Nicaragua,  Costa  Rica,  the  Mos- 
quito coast,  or  any  part  of  Central  America  ;  nor  will 
either  make  use  of  any  protection  which  either  af- 
fords, or  may  afford,  or  any  alliance  which  either 
has  or  may  have  to  or  with  any  state  or  people  for 
the  purpose  of  erecting  or  maintaining  any  such 
fortifications,  or  of  occupying,  fortifying,  or  coloniz- 
ing Nicaragua,  Costa  Rica,  the  Mosquito  coast,  or 
any  part  of  Central  America,  or  of  assuming  or  ex- 
ercising dominion  over  the  same  ;  .  .  ." 

This  convention  was  ratified  through  the  influence 


THE  INTER-OCEANIC  CANAL.  83 

of  the  administration,  notwithstanding  the  strong 
protest  of  many  influential  senators.  A  senator  so 
conservative  as  Mr.  Wilson  of  Massachusetts,  sub- 
sequently in  the  Senate  openly  advocated  its  abro- 
gation. This  may  not  be  required,  the  convention 
having  in  fact  abrogated  itself.  But  we  must  pro- 
tect our  own  interests  at  all  hazards,  and  whether 
that  can  be  done  without  the  formal  revocation  of 
the  Clayton-Bulwer  treaty,  as  proposed  by  Vice- 
President  Wilson,  is  a  question  which  the  future 
must  decide. 

It  should  be  our  policy,  not  to  prevent  the  con- 
struction of  a  canal  at  Panama  or  elsewhere,  but  to 
secure  the  control  of  any  such  canal  beyond  perad- 
venture.  We  do  not  seek  to  drive  foreign  enter- 
prise and  capital  from  this  continent,  but  to  provide 
against  their  being  used  to  make  subject  American 
interests  to  foreign  domination.  It  is  not  necessary 
for  us  probably  to  seize  upon  the  territory  to  be 
pierced  by  the  canal,  but  it  is  necessary  for  us  to 
establish  ourselves  on  such  vantage  ground  as  shall 
secure  our  safety  against  local  revolutions,  broken 
treaties,  foreign  interventions,  and  all  the  complica- 
tions sure  to  spring  from  the  relations  of  a  vast 
corporation  to  a  weak  and  unstable  government. 

We  must  plant  our  flag  firmly  and  permanently 
on  either  side  of  the  isthmus.  Whether  the  enter- 
prise of  M.  de  Lesseps  fails  or  succeeds,  such  action 


84  THE  INTER-OCEANIC  CANAL. 

on  our  part  is  absolutely  necessary  to  protect  the 
canal  if  a  canal  be  constructed  by  us,  and  to  domi- 
nate it  if  constructed  by  foreigners.  We  have  suf- 
fered matters  to  drift  too  long  and  to  our  grave 
detriment.  Our  neglect  confronts  us  with  the  alter- 
native of  a  foreign  war  in  the  near  future,  or  of 
the  immediate  occupation  of  commanding  naval 
positions  on  either  Isthmian  sea.  The  Monroe  doc- 
trine embodies  the  only  true  foreign  policy  which 
this  government  has  ever  had.  It  is  founded  on  the 
highest  principles  of  justice  and  of  self-preservation. 
To  these  considerations  all  others  must  bow. 

Passing  over  our  foreign  relations  between  1850  and 
1861,  we  come  to  the  momentous  period  of  the  civil 
war,  an  event  which  found  Mr.  Seward  in  charge  of 
our  foreign  office.  This  was  a  circumstance  of  fortu- 
nate significance  for  the  welfare  of  a  country  which 
has  never  adopted  the  wise  policy  of  preparing  men 
for  diplomatic  careers  by  special  training. 

It  was  the  patriotic  and  instructive  insight  of  this 
eminent  statesman  which  enabled  him  to  perform 
the  duties  of  Secretary  of  State  during  the  most  try- 
ing period  in  the  entire  history  of  our  foreign  rela- 
tions, with  a  success  which  earned  for  him  a  high 
and  enduring  fame. 

The  firmness,  persistence,  and  complete  success 
with  which  he  enforced  the  Monroe  doctrine  against 
the  French  invaders  of  Mexico  affords  the  most  con- 


THE  INTER-OCEANIC  CANAL.  86 

spicuous  proof  of  this.  The  negotiation  of  a  treaty 
for  the  purchase  of  the  island  of  St.  Thomas  as  a 
naval  station  followed  the  termination  of  the  civil 
war.  It  was  the  conviction  of  Mr.  Seward  that  the 
naval  and  commercial  interests  of  the  nation  de- 
manded the  acquisition  of  insular  possessions  in  all 
quarters  of  the  globe.  The  Senate,  unfortunately, 
was  not  prepared  to  accept  his  enlightened  and  saga- 
cious views,  and  the  treaty  was  rejected.  With  the 
treaty  for  the  purchase  of  Alaska,  Mr.  Seward  was 
more  fortunate.  Yet,  popular  as  that  measure  was, 
its  full  import  was  not  generally  understood  at  the 
time  of  the  purchase.  The  Secretary  of  State  had 
acted  with  reference  to  very  remote  results.  The 
immediate  benefits  of  the  annexation  of  Alaska, 
great  as  they  were,  were  to  him  but  of  little  con- 
sequence compared  with  the  fact  that  the  treaty 
looked  to  the  extension  of  our  dominion  over  the 
whole  of  North  America. 

This  expansive  idea  was  not  a  new  one  to  Mr. 
Seward.  As  early  as  1856,  in  a  debate  in '  the 
Senate  of  the  United  States,  he  said  : 

"We  are  the  center  of  one  system,  an  American 
one ;  Great  Britain  is  the  center  of  another,  an  Euro- 
pean one.  Almost  in  spite  of  ourselves,  we  are  stead- 
ily extending  and  increasing  our  control  over  these 
continents.  Notwithstanding  her  tenacity,  she  is 
constantly  losing  her  dominion  here.  This  is  within 


86  THE  INTER-OCEANIC  CANAL. 

the  order  of  nature.  It  was  for  three  hundred  years 
the  business  of  European  nations  to  colonize,  dis- 
cipline, and  educate  American  nations.  It  is  now 
the  business  of  those  nations  to  govern  themselves. 
The  decline  of  European  power  here  practically  be- 
gan with  the  fall  of  Canada  out  of  the  control  in 
1763.  It  has  steadily  continued,  until  now  only 
some  relics  possessing  little  vitality  remain.  With- 
out any  war  on  our  part,  Great  Britain  will  wisely 
withdraw  and  disappear  from  this  hemisphere  with- 
in a  quarter  of  a  century,  or  at  least  within  half 
a  century." 

The  germ  of  the  Alaska  treaty  is  to  be  found  in 
these  remarks.  Its  import  is  clearly  indicated  in 
the  speech  of  Mr.  Seward  at  Sitka,  in  1869,  on  his  re- 
turn from  his  voyage  around  the  world.  Referring 
to  the  resources  of  the  Pacific  coast,  he  said  : 

"The  entire  region  of  Oregon,  Washington  Terri- 
tory, British  Columbia,  and  Alaska,  seems  thus  des- 
tined to  become  a  ship-yard  for  the  supply  of  all 
nations.  I  do  not  forget  on  this  occasion  that  Brit- 
ish Columbia  belongs  within  a  foreign  jurisdiction. 
That  circumstance  does  not  materially  affect  my  cal- 
culations. British  Columbia,  by  whomsoever  pos- 
sessed, must  be  governed  in  conformity  with  the 
interests  of  her  people,  and  of  society  upon  the 
American  continent.  If  that  territory  shall  be  so 
governed,  there  will  be  no  ground  of  complaint  any- 


THE  INTER-OCEANIC  CANAL.  87 

where.  If  it  shall  be  governed  so  as  to  conflict  with 
the  interests  of  the  inhabitants  of  that  territory,  we 
all  can  easily  foresee  what  will  happen  in  that  case." 
The  crowning  glory,  however,  of  Mr.  Se ward's 
diplomatic  career  was  his  negotiation  of  the  treaty 
of  Darien,  the  sixth  article  of  which  embodied  pro- 
visions securing  to  the  United  States  absolute  control 
of  the  proposed  inter-oceanic  canal  at  the  Darien 
crossing.  It  is  true  this  treaty  was  rejected  by  Co- 
lombia through  French  and  English  influences.  It 
nevertheless  established  a  precedent  which  must  be 
followed  wherever  and  within  whatever  jurisdiction 
the  canal  may  be  finally  built. 
The  article  in  question  provided  that : 
"As  soon  as  the  canal,  together  with  its  depend- 
encies and  appurtenances,  shall  be  constructed,  the 
inspection,  possession,  direction,  and  government  of 
it  will  belong  to  the  United  States  of  America,  and 
it  will  be  exercised  by  that  government ;  that  of 
the  United  States  of  Colombia  having  the  power, 
after  the  exchange  of  this  convention,  of  keeping  a 
permanent  commission  of  agents,  with  the  right  to 
inspect  the  respective  operations,  to  ascertain  the 
tonnage  of  vessels,  to  examine  the  accounts,  and  to 
report  thereupon  to  the  government  of  the  United 
States  of  Colombia,  but  not  to  interfere  in  the  super- 
vision, government,  management,  direction,  and  ad- 
ministration of  the  canal." 


88  THE  INTER-OCEANIC  CANAL. 

The  entire  document  is  worthy  of  careful  study 
on  account  of  the  thoroughly  American  spirit  which 
pervades  it.  It  is  a  grand  practical  commentary  on 
the  Monroe  doctrine.  No  administration  in  any 
future  convention  with  the  local  authorities  of  the 
isthnms  will  ever  venture  to  depart  from  the  princi- 
ples embodied  in  the  Darien  treaty,  nor  must  any 
European  government  hereafter  be  permitted  to  dis- 
regard, in  spirit  or  in  fact,  this  distinct  declaration 
of  our  policy. 

Mr.  Seward  had  the  sagacity  to  perceive  that  any 
corporation  strong  enough  to  build  a  canal  on  the 
isthmus,  would  virtually  own  the  weak  and  dis- 
tracted republic  of  Colombia,  which  would  soon  be- 
come a  mere  province  of  the  nation  granting  the 
charter  to  such  a  corporation.  We  are  now  brought 
face  to  face  with  these  anticipated  dangers. 

A  French  corporation,  organized  for  the  construc- 
tion of  this  great  work,  and  now  on  the  ground  in 
active  prosecution  of  the  requisite  preliminary  de- 
tails, will  soon  govern  the  United  States  of  Colombia 
from  the  banks  of  the  Seine.  The  time  has  come  for 
the  authorities  at  Washington  to  announce  that  the 
control  of  any  canal  to  be  built  at  Darien,  Nicara- 
gua, or  elsewhere,  by  whomsoever  built,  and  what- 
ever the  nationality  of  its  corporators,  belongs,  and 
must  belong,  exclusively  to  the  United  States  of 
America. 


THE  INTER-OCEANIC  CANAL.  89 

Such  an  announcement  would  fitly  mark  the 
beginning  of  a  new  era  in  our  foreign  policy,  in 
which,  without  departing  from  the  precepts  of 
Washington  with  regard  to  alliances,  our  power 
shall  make  itself  felt  so  effectually  as  to  protect 
those  vast  continental  interests,  which  it  is  our 
privilege  and  our  duty  to  supervise.  In  this  matter 
we  have  both  right  and  tradition,  reason  and  expe- 
diency with  us.  We  are  assuming  no  new  ground. 
The  principles  applicable  to  the  case  are  traditional. 
The  proposed  canal  will  be  a  main  artery  of  our 
colossal  coastwise  trade.  Its  route  runs  within  the 
prospective  bounds  of  our  republic  ;  we  are  bound 
by  the  teachings  of  experience,  and  by  all  our  po- 
litical and  commercial  interests,  to  take  efficient 
means  now,  at  the  outset,  to  secure  it.  The  sen- 
timents of  the  American  people  on  the  subject  ad- 
mit of  no  question.  The  emergency  is  here  at  our 
doors.  It  calls  for  prompt  and  energetic  action. 
We  should  prepare  for  all  contingencies  at  once  by 
greatly  strengthening  our  navy,  and  by  establish- 
ing naval  stations  at  commanding  positions  upon 
the  Caribbean  and  the  Pacific  sides  of  the  isth- 
mus. These  are  measures  demanded  not  only  by 
the  urgency  of  the  inter-oceanic  canal  question,  but 
by  common  sense  and  a  rational  regard  to  our  po- 
litical and  commercial  interests  everywhere. 


COLONIZATION    AND    PROVINCIAL    POSSESSIONS    CONSID- 
ERED IN  RELATION  TO  THE  INTERESTS 
OF  THE  UNITED  STATES. 


VENICE,  Carthage,  Greece,  and  Home  all  owed 
their  political  greatness  largely  to  their  colonies. 
The  colonial  system  was  a  favorite  method  for  the 
defense  of  military  conquests  and  the  extension  of 
the  limits  of  commerce.  Among  the  Greeks,  colo- 
nies were  often  established  by  those  who  wished  to 
escape  the  tyranny  of  factions  at  home.  Rome  in 
her  colonial  system  founded  that  wise  policy,  by 
which  her  territorial  jurisdiction  and  her  pre-emi- 
nence were  maintained.  Her  colonies  were  the  out- 
posts of  her  conquests,  and  the  disseminators  of 
her  language  and  laws  to  the  remotest  regions  of 
the  empire.  Unquestionably,  all  the  great  Euro- 
pean powers  have  owed  much  of  their  strength  and 
wealth  to  their  colonial  and  provincial  acquisitions. 

90 


THE  INTER-OCEANIC  CANAL.  91 

To  sustain  this  assertion  by  examples  would  be 
merely  to  give  a  list  of  great  sovereignties  from 
the  beginning  of  history  down  to  the  days  of  the 
world- wide  empire  of  that  dominion,  "which  has 
dotted  over  the  surface  of  the  globe  with  her  pos- 
sessions and  military  posts ;  whose  morning  drum- 
beat, following  the  sun  and  keeping  company  with 
the  hours,  circles  the  earth  with  one  continuous 
and  unbroken  strain  of  the  martial  airs  of  Eng- 
land." The  history  of  British  colonization  is  fa- 
miliar. Great  Britain's  colonies  cover  one-sixth  of 
land  surface  of  the  globe,  and  include  nearly  an 
equal  portion  of  its  population.  Of  the  territory 
of  the  world  available  for  colonization,  about  eighty 
per  cent,  now  belongs  to  the  Anglo-Saxon  race. 
The  relative  importance  of  the  colonial  interests 
of  the  various  nations  of  the  globe  is  shown  by 
the  following  table : 

Powers.  Colonial  Area,  Sq.  Miles.  Colonial  Population. 

Great  Britain 8,015,028 204,535,000 

France 247,642 4,019,500 

Spain 120,703 8,584,000 

Portugal 690,451 3,618,000 

HoUand 681,436 24,110,000 

Denmark 34,140 47,500 

Sweden 8 2,900 

The  colonies  of  Great  Britain  have  not  only  ex- 


92  THE  INTER-OCEANIC  CANAL. 

tended  the  blessings  of  English  laws  and  English 
liberty  throughout  the  globe,  but  have  also  largely 
contributed  to  the  wealth  of  the  mother  country, 
and  it  is  chiefly  due  to  the  magnificent  contributions 
of  these  dependencies  that  England  has  advanced 
from  an  insignificant  kingdom  in  the  days  of  Jier 
Norman  sovereigns,  to  the  commanding  position  she 
holds  among  the  nations.  Her  numerous  possessions 
have  had  an  important  influence  upon  her  internal 
economy.  They  have  opened  an  outlet  for  her  sur- 
plus population,  fostered  and  enlarged  her  com- 
merce, and  maintained  the  stability  of  her  govern- 
ment. It  is  not  to  be  contended  that  a  similar 
policy  is  or  ever  will  be  wise  or  appropriate  for  the 
United  States,  nor  that  any  general  schemes  of  con- 
quest or  annexation  should  be  encouraged  by  our 
people.  But  we  have  reached  a  stage  in  our  national 
growth  which  may  render  it  expedient  to  strengthen 
ourselves  by  judicious  acquisitions  of  external  de- 
pendencies, and  we  should  seek  expansion  only  as 
an  incident  to,  and  in  furtherance  of,  strength  and 
self -protection.  At  the  opening  of  the  present  cen- 
tury, it  was  earnestly  debated  in  the  Senate  of  the 
United  States  whether,  it  would  be  safe  to  acquire 
territory  on  the  west  bank  of  the  Mississippi  River. 
It  was  then  contended  that  such  an  extension  of  our 
territory  would  be  dangerous,  and  that  it  would  be 
wise  to  make  the  Alleghanies  the  barrier  beyond 


THE  INTER-OCEANIC  CANAL.  93 

which  we  ought  not  to  pass.  At  a  later  day  more 
liberal  views  prevailed,  and  it  was  thought  we  might 
safely  venture  to  establish  one  tier  of  States  west  of 
the  Mississippi.  The  expedient  was  then  resorted 
to  of  establishing  an  Indian  Territory  in  perpetuity 
all  along  our  western  border,  for  the  express  pur- 
pose of  preventing  the  establishment  of  any  new 
States  in  that  direction !  The  extension  of  our  do- 
minion to  the  shores  of  the  Pacific  was  then  thought 
to  be  entirely  improbable.  Jefferson,  in  a  letter  to 
Mr.  Astor,  written  in  1813,  in  reference  to  the  settle- 
ment on  the  Columbia  River  in  Oregon,  calls  it  the 
"germ  of  a  great,  free,  and  independent  empire  on 
that  side  of  our  continent ;  and  even  so  late  as  in 
1848,  Daniel  Webster  himself  thought  it  impractica- 
ble to  govern  the  States  upon  the  Pacific  from  this 
side  of  the  continent.  In  a  speech  in  Faneuil  Hall, 
on  the  7th  of  November  of  that  year,  he  said,  "  and 
now  let  me  ask  if  there  be  any  sensible  man  in  the 
whole  United  States  who  will  say  for  a  moment  that 
when  fifty  or  a  hundred  thousand  persons  of  this 
description,  Americans  mainly,  but  all  Anglo-Sax- 
ons, shall  find  themselves  on  the  shores  of  the  Pa- 
cific Ocean,  they  will  long  consent  to  be  under  the 
rules  of  the  American  Congress,  or  British  Parlia- 
ment. They  will  raise  the  standard  for  themselves, 
and  they  ought  to  do  it."  Two  years  afterward 
Mr.  Webster  admitted  that  his  apprehensions  had 


94  THE  INTER-OCEANIC  CANAL. 

not  been  realized.*  The  truth  is  that  the  telegraph 
and  the  steam  engine  have  silently  revolutionized 
the  conditions  of  political  power  throughout  the 
world. 

The  acquisition  of  California  and  Oregon,  and 
their  admission  into  the  Union,  greatly  enlarged  the 
views  of  our  statesmen,  and  Mr.  Everett,  Secretary 
of  State  in  1852,  in  his  letter  on  the  tripartite 
treaty,  took  the  ground  that  we  would  not  relin- 
quish the  privilege  of  taking  possession  of  any  por- 
tion wJiatever  of  this  continent.  Speaking  with 
special  reference  to  Central  America,  Vice-President 
Wilson  said  in  the  Senate,  in  1856,  "  I  have  no  sym- 
pathy with  the  policy  that  would  extend  the  bound- 
aries of  the  republic  by  lawless  violence,  but  I  have 
faith  in  democratic  institutions.  I  believe  that 
wherever  the  jurisdiction  of  this  country  extends 
on  this  continent,  the  interests  of  humanity  will  be 
ultimately  promoted  by  it.  Agreeing  with  the  doc- 
trine laid  down  by  Mr.  Everett  in  his  admirable  let- 
ter upon  the  tripartite  treaty,  I  would  never  bind 
ourselves  by  any  treaty  that  we  would  not  annex,  if 
we  and  the  people  who  live  in  the  country  desire  it, 
any  portion  of  this  continent.  For  myself  I  can 
never  vote  to  admit  a  foot  of  territory  into  this 
Union  where  the  great  doctrine  of  the  Declaration 

*  Jefferson's  Writings,  Vol.  VI.,  p.  55;  Boston  Daily  Advertiser,  Nov. 
9th,  1848;  Webster's  Works,  Vol.  II.,  p.  526. 


THE  INTER-OCEANIC  CANAL.  95 

of  Independence,  that  all  men  are  created  free,  is 
denied;  but  wherever  freedom  and  free  institutions 
can  follow  tJie  American  flag,  I  am  ready  to  annex 
that  portion  of  the  continent,  if  it  can  be  accom- 
plished honorably,  peacefully,  and  in  harmony  with 
the  people  who  are  to  come  to  us."  Such  were  the 
views  entertained  by  so  conservative  a  senator  as 
Mr.  Wilson  prior  to  the  civil  war.  That  event  did 
not  check  the  advance  of  public  sentiment,  but  on 
the  contrary,  accelerated  it.  In  1861,  Mr.  Lincoln  en- 
tered into  an  agreement  on  the  part  of  the  United 
States  with  an  American  citizen  owning  a  part  of 
the  Isthmus  of  Panama,  for  the  colonization  there 
of  the  recently  emancipated  slaves,  and  Congress 
placed  at  his  disposal  an  appropriation  of  six  hun- 
dred thousand  dollars  to  carry  the  agreement  into 
effect.  It  is  understood  that  this  contract  is  a  sub- 
sisting obligation,  and  can  be  made  use  of  whenever 
the  freedmen  choose  to  claim  its  performance  by  the 
government.  The  war  had  scarcely  closed  when  the 
nation  was  found  willing  to  sanction  the  purchase  of 
Alaska.  As  this  is  the  first  instance  in  which  we 
have  acquired  territory  divided  by  an  intervening 
foreign  state  from  our  previous  possessions,  the  pre- 
cedent is  one  of  importance  as  indicating  that  in 
future  our  annexations  are  not  to  be  restricted  to 
contiguous  territory,  nor  prevented  by  dissimilarity 
of  race  and  language,  if  otherwise  desirable.  The 


96  THE  INTER-OCEANIC  CANAL. 

treaty  for  the  purchase  of  Alaska  was  ratified  by  the 
Senate  while  Mr.  Sumner  was  chairman  of  the  com- 
mittee on  foreign  relations.  It  is  well  known  that  he 
zealously  advocated  its  ratification.  His  familiarity 
with  European  politics,  his  thorough  knowledge  of 
ancient  and  modern  history,  his  love  of  broad  states- 
manship, gave  him  rare  qualifications  as  a  wise 
adviser  in  regard  to  this  new  measure  of  national 
policy.  He  had,  moreover,  studied  with  special 
care  the  problem  of  our  territorial  expansion,  and  in 
the  last  years  of  his  life,  as  a  consequence  of  his 
thoughtful  consideration  of  the  subject,  the  ultimate 
absorption  of  the  entire  continent  of  North  America 
by  our  republic,  was  regarded  by  him  as  not  at  all 
improbable.  In  advocating  the  ratification  of  the 
Alaska  treaty,  he  said,  "The  present  treaty  is  a 
visible  step  in  the  occupation  of  the  whole  North 
American  continent.  As  such  it  will  be  recognized 
by  the  world,  and  accepted  by  the  American  people. 
But  the  treaty  involves  something  more.  By  it  we 
dismiss  one  more  monarch  from  this  continent.  One 
by  one  they  have  retired  ;  first  France ;  then  Spain  • 
then  France  again  ;  and  now  Russia  ;  all  giving  way 
to  that  absorbing  unity  declared  in  the  national 
motto,  E  Pluribus  Unum."  Let  no  one  suppose 
that  Mr.  Sumner  was  carried  away  by  mere  ora- 
torical fervor.  He  followed  the  footsteps  of  John 
Adams,  who,  writing  in  London  on  the  1st  of  Janu- 


THE  INTER-OCEANIC  CANAL.  97 

ary,  1787,  predicted  that  our  republic  would  spread 
over  the  "northern  part  of  that  whole  quarter  of 
the  globe."  Thus,  says  Sunnier,  "even  at  that  early 
day  was  the  destiny  of  the  republic  manifest."  The 
prophecy  was  a  sound  philosophical  deduction  from 
the  history  of  the  growth  of  empires.  As  a  general 
rule  the  acquisition  of  territory  has  been  the  normal 
rule  of  national  development,  and  the  sign  of  na- 
tional health  and  vigor.  Such  acquisitions  must  be 
regarded  as  the  law  of  the  being  of  a  nation  like 
ours.  Mr.  Sumner,  in  his  speech  on  the  Alaska  treaty, 
very  properly  laid  stress  upon  the  measure  as  one 
that  would  extend  our  dominion.  Referring  to  the 
fact  that  "few  are  so  cold  or  philosophical  as  to  re- 
gard with  insensibility  the  widening  of  the  bounds 
of  country,"  he  recites  with  pride  the  history  of  our 
territorial  acquisitions,  beginning  with  the  purchase 
of  Louisiana  in  1803,  and  traces  to  its  natural  and 
beneficent  source  the  universal  desire  of  nations 
for  territorial  expansion,  in  the  following  para- 
graph: 

"The  passion  for  acquisition,  which  is  so  strong  in 
the  individual,  is  not  less  strong  in  the  community. 
A  nation  seeks  an  outlying  territory  as  an  indi- 
vidual seeks  an  outlying  farm.  The  passion  shows 
itself  constantly.  France,  passing  into  Africa,  has 
annexed  Algeria.  Spain  set  her  face  in  the  same  di- 
rection, but  without  the  same  success.  There  are 
7 


98  TEE  INTEE-OCEANIC  CANAL. 

two  great  powers  with  which  annexation  has  become 
a  habit.  One  is  Russia,  which  from  the  time  of  Peter 
the  Great  has  been  moving  her  flag  forward  in  every 
direction,  so  that  on  every  side  her  limits  have  been 
extended.  Even  now  the  report  comes  that  she  is 
lifting  her  southern  landmarks  in  Asia,  so  as  to  carry 
her  boundary  to  India.  The  other  annexationist  is 
Great  Britain,  which  from  time  to  time  adds  another 
province  to  her  Indian  dominion.  If  our  country 
has  occasionally  added  to  her  dominion,  she  has 
only  yielded  to  the  universal  passion,  although  I  do 
not  forget  that  the  late  Theodore  Parker  was  accus- 
tomed to  say  that  above  all  people  the  Anglo-Saxons 
were  remarkable  for  greed  of  land.  It  was  land, 
not  gold,  that  aroused  the  Anglo-Saxon  phlegm.  I 
doubt,  however,  if  the  passion  be  stronger  with  us 
than  with  others,  except  perhaps  that  in  a  commu- 
nity where  all  participate  in  government,  the  na- 
tional sentiments  are  more  active.  It  is  common  to 
the  human  family.  There  are  few  anywhere  who 
could  hear  of  a  considerable  accession  of  territory 
obtained  peacefully  and  honestly,  without  a  pride 
of  country,  even  if  at  certain  moments  the  judgment 
hesitated.  With  an  increased  size  on  the  map,  there 
is  an  increased  consciousness  of  strength,  and  the 
heart  of  the  citizen  throbs  anew  as  he  traces  the  ex- 
tending line."  The  predictions  of  our  leading  states- 
men thus  clearly  point  to  the  annexation  of  territory 


THE  INTER-OCEANIC  CANAL.  99 

in  the  future.  It  is  not  too  soon  to  consider  the  policy 
which  shall  direct  those  acquisitions.  British  states- 
men themselves  admit  that  the  absorption  of  British 
America  by  the  United  States  is  but  a  question  of 
time.  Mr.  Bright,  in  a  speech  delivered  on  the  18th 
of  December,  1862,  said : 

"I  have  a  far  other  and  far  brighter  vision  be- 
fore my  gaze.  It  may  be  but  a  vision,  but  I  will 
cherish  it.  I  see  one  vast  confederation  stretching 
from  the  frozen  north  in  unbroken  line  to  the  glow- 
ing south,  and  from  the  wild  billows  of  the  Atlantic 
westward  to  the  calmer  waters  of  the  Pacific  main : 
a,nd  I  see  one  people,  and  one  law,  and  one  language, 
and  one  faith,  and  over  all  that  wide  continent  the 
home  of  freedom  and  a  refuge  for  the  oppressed  of 
every  race  and  of  every  clime." 

Turning  to  Mexico,  we  find  her  greatest  his- 
torian virtually  admitting  that  his  country  is  des- 
tined to  disappear  from  the  map,  except  as  a  sub- 
ordinate part  of  the  great  republic  of  the  north. 
Alaman  says,  "Mexico  will  be  without  doubt  a 
land  of  prosperity  from  its  natural  advantages,  but  it 
will  not  be  so  for  the  races  which  now  inhabit  it." 
In  1823  Mr.  Jefferson  said,  in  regard  to  Cuba,  "Her 
addition  to  our  confederacy  is  exactly  what  is  want- 
ing to  round  out  our  power  as  a  nation  to  the  point 
of  its  utmost  interest,"  a  sentiment  which  has  since 
been  concurred  in  by  many  of-  our  statesmen.  The 


100  THE  INTER-OCEANIC  CANAL. 

treaty  for  the  purchase  of  the  island  of  St.  Thomas 
was  hastily  rejected  on  narrow  and  unwise  grounds ; 
and  that  for  the  acquisition  of  Santo  Domingo,  so 
creditable  to  the  diplomacy  of  Grant's  administra- 
tion, was  defeated  by  the  animosity  of  a  faction,  and 
not  for  sound  reasons  of  public  policy.  So  far  then 
as  insular  or  isthmian  possessions  are  concerned,  we 
are  not  restrained  from  acquiring  them  either  by 
precedents,  or  the  precepts  of  our  wisest  statesmen. 
There  are  many  localities  which  would  be  valuable 
to  us,  either  as  naval  stations  or  for  commercial  rea- 
sons, and  they  will  doubtless  become  our  dependen- 
cies, especially  when  our  long-depressed  shipping 
interests  shall  have  been  revived  by  proper  congres- 
sional legislation.  As  to  Central  America,  the  plain- 
est principles  of  sound  national  policy  dictate  that 
the  region  which  contains  the  gate  of  the  Pacific 
should  be  a  dependency  of  our  republic,  whose  vital 
interests,  present  and  prospective,  are  so  intimately 
concerned  with  the  construction  and  control  of  an 
inter-oceanic  canal.  Aside  from  other  grave  public 
considerations,  the  fact  that  the  canal  will  be  the 
connecting  link  in  our  immense  coastwise  trade  from 
Maine  to  Alaska,  imposes  upon  us  at  least  the  neces- 
sity for  its  military  and  naval  control.  The  smallest 
beginnings  in  the  right  direction  may  result  in  a 
most  splendid  consummation.  Lord  Mahon,  in  his 
history  of  England,  forcibly  says  that  the  story  of 


THE  INTER-OCEANIC  CANAL.  101 

the  establishment  of  the  British  Indian  Empire  sur- 
passes in  marvelousness  "  the  prodigies  wrought  by 
spells  or  talismans,  by  the  lamp  of  Aladdin,  or 
the  seals  of  Solomon."  These  magnificent  results 
sprang  from  a  feeble  trading  establishment,  which 
under  the  wise  care  of  the  mother  country  grew  into 
empire.  Mr.  Wood,  in  his  recent  work  on  the 
British  colonies,  says:  "In  Hong-Kong  we  find  a 
small  barren  island,  which  at  the  time  of  its  cession 
to  Britain  was  inhabited  only  by  a  few  handfuls  of 
fishermen,  now  crowded  with  tens  of  thousands  of 
Chinese,  who  have  crossed  from  the  mainland  be- 
cause they  knew  that  under  British  rule  they  would 
be  free  from  oppressive  taxation,  would  be  governed 
by  just  laws,  and  would  be  able  to  carry  on  a  thriv- 
ing and  profitable  trade.  And  so  in  the  once  uninhab- 
ited island  of  Singapore,  we  see  a  motley  popula- 
tion attracted  from  China,  the  Malay  Peninsula,  and 
India,  by  a  similar  cause."  The  mere  establishment 
of  naval  stations  upon  the  isthmus  would  be  the  sure 
forerunner  of  such  a  colony.  Protection  under  the 
American  flag  would  open  up  to  our  enterprising 
citizens  a  country  rivaling  the  wealth  of  the  East. 
The  riotous  and  ungarnered  luxuriance  of  that  won- 
derful and  almost  unknown  land,  under  the  guiding 
hand  of  civilized  husbandry  and  Anglo-Saxon  en- 
terprise, would  contribute  its  lavish  quota  of  wealth, 
not  to  us  only,  but  to  the  world.  It  would  at  once 


102  TEE  INTER-OCEANIC  CANAL. 

give  us  new  and  commanding  commercial  relations 
with  South  America  and  Russia,  with  China,  Japan, 
and  the  islands  of  the  Pacific.  Our  trade  would 
increase  with  the  extension  of  our  authority,  and 
ultimately  become  the  chief  source  of  our  national 
wealth  and  prosperity.  Why  should  we  not  have 
our  naval  stations  in  every  sea,  and  harbors  of  our 
own  1  Why  not  have  our  own  Hong-Kongs  and 
Singapores?  Did  any  sound  maxim  of  national 
policy  require  us  to  reject  proffered  protectorates 
over  such  valuable  possessions  as  the  Samoan  Isl- 
ands and  Santo  Domingo  ?  There  are  weighty  rea- 
sons in  the  social  condition  of  the  United  States 
which  render  it  expedient  that  a  more  liberal  policy 
of  territorial  expansion  should  obtain.  Free  schools 
and  popular  education  have  introduced  peculiar  and 
difficult  social  problems.  A  large  class  of  persons 
with  educated  tastes  and  habits,  which  their  financial 
circumstances  do  not  allow  them  to  gratify,  born  to 
social  and  political  aspirations  they  cannot  hope  to 
realize,  owing  to  excessive  competition,  may  hope  to 
find  their  opportunities  in  colonial  enterprise.  The 
effects  of  this  condition  of  things  appear  in  the 
numbers  who  crowd  the  learned  professions  ;  in  the 
throngs  who  are  always  pressing  for  admission  into 
the  civil  service  of  the  nation,  and  in  the  fact  that 
every  department  of  intellectual  work  is  overcrowd- 
ed. The  same  trouble  felt  in  England  is  thus  re- 


THE  INTER-OCEANIC  CANAL.  103 

ferred  to  by  Earl  Stanhope,  in  his  history  of  the 
reign  of  Queen  Anne.  "At  present  there  are  few 
things  more  distressing  to  any  one  who  desires  to 
see  genera]  prosperity  and  content  prevail,  than  to 
find  start  np,  whenever  any  opening  in  any  career  is 
made  known,  not  one  or  two,  but  ten  or  twenty  can- 
didates. Every  one  of  these  twenty  may  be  in  every 
case  perfectly  well  qualified  to  fill  the  place  that  he 
seeks,  yet  only  one  can  be  chosen.  What  is  then 
to  become  of  the  nineteen?"  The  acquisition  of 
insular,  transmarine,  South  American  and  Central 
American  possessions  would  have  a  beneficial  influ- 
ence upon  our  national  politics,  by  enlarging  and 
liberalizing  the  views  of  our  statesmen,  and  by  tran- 
quilizing  our  domestic  affairs  with  external  sub- 
jects of  consideration.  The  policy  above  indicated 
concerns  itself  only  with  such  peaceful  acquisitions 
as  would  inevitably  result  from  the  promulgation  of 
the  fact  of  our  willingness  to  admit  within  our  juris- 
diction such  petty  and  distracted  commonwealths 
as  might  voluntarily  seek  peace  and  security  under 
our  flag.  The  admission  of  a  great  foreign  power 
upon  soil  contiguous  to  our  own  presents  the  ques- 
tion whether  the  paramount  demands  of  national 
protection  do  not  require  the  forestalling  of  such  oc- 
cupation by  occupation.  The  law  of  private  self- 
preservation,  which  would  forbid  a  man  to  suffer 
his  neighbor  to  found  a  powder  mill  next  door  to 


104  THE  INTER-OCEANIC  CANAL. 

his  house,  extends  to  national  affairs.  Some  occult 
reason,  perhaps  beyond  explanation,  has  made  it 
evident  that  the  mixed  races  of  Central  America  are 
incapable  of  successful  self-government.  The  fair- 
est regions  of  the  globe  have,  since  the  discovery  of 
this  continent,  been  practically  closed  to  the  legiti- 
mate exercise  of  commercial  privileges  and  the  arts 
of  peace.  It  is  a  fact  that  the  Latin  races  have 
never  been  prosperous  colonists  nor  practical  repub- 
licans. These  petty  states,  as  republics,  have  be- 
lied the  name,  by  constant  internal  strife  marked 
by  cruelty  and  bloodshed.  Now,  under  the  name  of 
republics,  they  have  been  hot-beds  of  license,  and 
now,  under  the  rule  of  dictators,  strongholds  of 
tyranny.  Throughout  their  entire  history,  these 
states  have  offered  premiums  for  the  establishment 
of  monarchies  upon  this  continent.  They  are  stand- 
ing menaces  to  our  own  safety.  When  it  is  consid- 
ered that  under  a  strong  but  constitutional  govern- 
ment, these  states,  which  contain  within  their  bor- 
ders the  very  gardens  of  the  earth,  might  be  opened 
to  the  peaceful  commerce  and  industries  of  the 
world,  that  the  happiness  and  prosperity  of  their 
own  inhabitants  might  be  secured — when  it  is  con- 
sidered that  from  the  gloom  of  semi-barbarism  they 
might  be  ushered  into  the  sunlight  of  civilization,  it 
requires  no  subtle  casuistry  to  justify  their  redemp- 
tion from  themselves  if  need  be.  If  to  all  this  we 


THE  INTER-OCEANIG  CANAL.  1Q5 

add  the  paramount  demands  of  our  own  self -protec- 
tion, and  the  prophecies  of  the  fathers  of  our  re- 
public become  to  us  not  only  predictions,  but  com- 
mands. 


THE  UNITED  STATES  SHOULD  CONTROL  THE  INTER- 
OCEANIC  CANAL. 


THE  consideration  of  foreign  affairs  has  been,  with 
our  public  men,  a  matter  of  secondary  importance 
for  a  long  time  past,  as  compared  with  domestic 
questions.  Public  sentiment,  however,  in  the  United 
States  under  the  guidance  of  enlightened  statesman- 
ship, in  which  our  most  conservative  statesmen  have 
participated,  anticipates  the  final  absorption  of  the 
North  American  continent  within  the  bounds  of  the 
United  States. 

This  sentiment,  as  Sumner  remarks,  had  its  origin 
in  opposition  to  kingly  dominion  in  the  New  World. 
Our  revolutionary  ancestors  were,  he  says,  "  Roman 
in  character,  and  turned  to  Roman  lessons.  With 
a  cynical  austerity  the  early  Cato  said  that  kings 
w6re  'carnivorous  animals,'  and  at  his  instance  the 
Roman  Senate  decreed  that  no  king  should  be  al- 
lowed within  the  gates  of  the  city.  A  kindred  sen- 
timent, with  less  austerity  of  form,  has  been  received 
from  our  fathers ;  but  our  city  can  be  nothing  less 

106 


THE  INTER-OCEANIC  CANAL.  1Q7 

than  the  North  American  continent,  with  its  gates 
on  all  the  surrounding  seas" 

And  in  the  same  spirit  of  enlightened  patriotism 
Webster,  in  a  vivid  portrayal  of  the  destiny  of  our 
country,  had  previously  used  Homer's  beautiful  de- 
scription of  the  border  of  the  shield  of  Achilles  : 

"  Now  the  broad  shield  complete,  the  artist  crowned 
With  his  last  hand,  and  poured  the  ocean  round  ; 
In  living  silver  seemed  the  waves  to  roll, 
And  beat  the  buckler's  verge,  and  bound  the  whole." 

But  while  the  aspirations  and  hopes  alike  of  our 
people  and  our  statesmen  point  to  this  wide  ultimate 
extension  of  American  dominion,  it  is  not  strange 
that  European  powers  should  contemplate  with  ap- 
prehension every  step  toward  such  an  ascendancy. 
France,  and  particularly  the  Imperial  party  in 
France,  has  for  the  last  twenty  years  been  active  in 
plans  and  efforts  to  check  the  territorial  expansion 
of  the  United  States.  She  has  assumed  the  direction 
of  this  aggressive  work,  as  being  the  leading  Latin 
power. 

The  avowed  purpose  of  the  French  invasion  of 
Mexico  during  the  late  civil  war  was  to  curb  Anglo- 
Saxon  progress  beyond  the  borders  of  Texas  ;  and  it 
was  openly  declared  in  the  famous  letter  of  Louis 
Napoleon  to  General  Forey,  that  his  object  in 
founding  an  empire  in  Mexico  was  the  establishment 


108  THE  INTER-OCEANIC  CANAL. 

of  the  power  of  the  Latin  race  on  this  continent,  as 
a  counterpoise  to  the  Anglo-Saxon  dominion.  The 
French  newspapers  of  that  period  may  be  profitably 
studied  for  the  light  they  throw  on  the  designs  of 
France  in  this  quarter  of  the  globe.  An  exultant 
article  published  in  the  "  France  "  in  1864,  upon  the 
successful  establishment  of  the  empire  in  Mexico, 
thus  concludes : 

"  Lastly,  French  interests  must  there  find  guaran- 
tees and  particular  advantages,  which  cannot  fail  to 
excite  attention.  There  has  been  created  on  the 
other  side  of  the  Atlantic,  by  the  victories  of  our 
soldiers,  an  empire  which  owes  its  existence  to  us ; 
which  the  bonds  of  the  most  cordial  friendship,  and 
of  the  most  legitimate  gratitude  must  unite  us  to ; 
which  will  give  fresh  strength  to  the  straightforward 
influences  of  our  policy  in  the  New  World,  and  open 
the  unexplored  treasures  of  its  vast  territory  to 
French  commerce  and  industry." 

Such  are  still  the  sentiments  of  French  statesmen 
and  of  the  leaders  of  French  thought.  Is  the  "pol- 
icy in  the  New  World,"  which  failed  under  the  guid- 
ing hand  of  Louis  Napoleon,  to  be  made  a  splendid 
success  under  de  Lesseps  ?  The  inter-oceanic  canal 
project  of  M.  de  Lesseps — although  in  its  inception 
urged  as  a  great  international  and  "fraternal"  en- 
terprise—has been  from  the  first  thoroughly  French, 
and  designed  for  the  promotion  of  French  interests 


TEE  INTEE-OCEANIC  CANAL.  109 

alone.  The  canal  is  to  be  built  under  a  French 
charter,  and  by  a  preponderance  of  French  capital. 
The  concession  from  Colombia  is  owned  by  a  French 
company.  The  amount  of  capital  required  to  build 
the  canal  is  so  great,  relatively  to  the  financial  re- 
sources of  Colombia,  that  the  corporation  owning  it 
would  be  much  greater  than  the  state  itself.  French 
troops  must  sooner  or  later  protect  it.  It  will  be 
administered  by  French  officials,  who  will  schedule 
and  impose  tolls  upon  the  commerce  passing  through 
it.  More  than  two-thirds  of  that  commerce  at  the 
outset  must  be  the  commerce  of  the  United  States  of 
America.  All  the  numerous  and  important  litigated 
questions  as  to  maritime  and  national  and  interna- 
tional rights  and  liabilities,  concerning  the  transit  of 
passengers  and  freight,  must  be  adjudicated  either 
at  Bogota,  virtually  under  French  influence,  or  at 
Paris  itself. 

A  correspondent  of  the  New  York  World,  report- 
ing a  recent  interview  at  Panama  with  M.  de  Les- 
seps,  gives  us  his  plans  and  expectations  in  this  re- 
spect. In  his  own  words, 

"M.  de  Lesseps  says  that  all  questions  regarding 
the  canal,  its  tonnage,  and  management,  with  whom- 
soever they  may  arise,  will  be  decided  by  the  French 
courts,  as  in  the  case  of  Suez.  The  local  Colombian 
courts  will  not  give  the  company  guarantee  enough 
of  justice,  while  the  French  courts  are  worthy  of  all 


HO  THE  INTER-OCEANIC  CANAL. 

confidence.  In  important  matters,  then,  they  will 
have  arbitration — in  matters  in  which  the  Colombian 
government  may  be  concerned.  All  this  is  to  be 
decided  by  the  articles  of  association.  But  one 
thing  is  sure— every  question  about  the  management 
of  the  canal  must  be  brought  up  in  France,  not  in 
Colombia.  Both  M.  de  Lesseps  and  (which  is  the 
same  thing)  M.  Bionne,  the  general  superintendent, 
and  really  the  'man  behind  the  throne,'  who  is  a 
clever  lawyer,  insist  on  this  point. 

"I  asked  particularly  whether  he  did  not  think 
that  this  proposed  recourse  to  the  French  courts,  on 
matters  which  in  the  regular  way  should  be  adjudi- 
cated in  the  local  courts,  was  not  an  infringement  of 
the  sovereignty  of  the  Republic  of  Colombia.  M.  de 
Lesseps  cannot  see  any  derogation  of  the  perfect 
independence  of  that  republic  in  what  he  proposes 
to  do.  The  local  courts  do  not  give  guarantees 
enough,  and  the  regulation  of  jurisdiction  is  to  be 
fixed  by  an  arrangement  with  the  Colombian  au- 
thorities." 

If,  in  addition  to  these  commercial  and  economical 
considerations,  we  take  into  account  the  political 
consequences  of  the  construction  of  the  canal  under 
foreign  auspices,  the  argument  for  the  permanent 
and  effectual  neutralization  of  the  project  by  our 
own  government  becomes  irresistible.  Treaty  nego- 
tiations will  not  answer.  The  occupation  of  com- 


THE  INTER-OCEANIC  CANAL.  HI 

manding  naval  and  military  positions  upon  the 
isthmus  alone  will  accomplish  the  purpose.  Colom- 
bia is  destined  to  become  a  French  province.  A 
transatlantic  foreign  power,  established  as  a  neigh- 
bor, will  control  the  most  important  channel  of  our 
immense  coastwise  trade.  A  foreign  nation  will  at 
any  time  be  able,  if  hostile,  to  close  that  channel  to 
us  in  case  of  war  with  any  great  power.  In  time  of 
peace  we  could  doubtless  secure  favorable  conditions 
for  the  passage  of  our  shipping,  but  war  would  place 
us  at  the  mercy  of  the  great  foreign  corporation 
virtually  owning  the  United  States  of  Colombia. 

M.  de  Lesseps,  commenting  on  the  Burnside  reso- 
lution, said,  "he  had  always  been  of  the  opinion 
that  the  canal  should  be  independent  of  the  control 
of  any  and  every  foreign  government."  Whatever 
countenance  our  government  may  have  given  to  this 
idea  in  the  ill-advised  Clayton-Bulwer  convention, 
the  Darien  treaty,  a  subsequent  and  far  more  de- 
liberate and  well-considered  instrument,  more  truly 
formulates  the  purpose  of  the  American  people.  It 
is  true  that,  induced  by  French  and  English  influ- 
ences, the  United  States  of  Colombia  declined  to  con- 
summate that  treaty.  It,  notwithstanding,  embodies 
the  principles  to  which  the  United  States  will  hence- 
forth adhere.  The  Senate  of  the  United  States  was 
influenced  solely  by  the  supposition  that  the  canal 
was  about  to  be  built  by  an  American  corporation, 


112  TEE  INTEE-OCEANIG  CANAL. 

when  it  ratified  in  1850  the  Clayton-Bulwer  conven- 
tion. Our  interest  in  the  canal  is  of  such  an  excep- 
tional character  as  compared  with  the  interest  of 

v  any  other  nation,  or  of  all  other  nations,  that  this 
circumstance  must  necessarily  control  our  action. 
Opening  to  us  as  it  does  new  facilities  for  trade  be- 
tween our  eastern  and  western  coast,  over  the  entire 
line  from  Maine  to  Alaska,  and  placing  within  easy 
reach  the  western  coast  of  South  America,  the 
shores  of  Asia,  and  the  islands  of  the  Pacific,  we 
must  possess  over  it  a  control  beyond  the  power 
of  stipulations  to  give,  or  of  their  violation  to  de- 
stroy. Its  joint  supervision  with  us  by  any  foreign 
power  or  combination  of  powers,  or  even  its  guaran- 
teed neutrality,  would  leave  these  vast  interests  be- 
yond our  own  grasp  and  at  the  mercy  of  the  uncer- 
tain events  of  European  politics.  Our  acquiescence 
in  the  stipulations  of  a  convention  to  guarantee  the 
neutrality  of  the  Mississippi,  would  not  be  more  ab- 
surd or  weak  than  was  our  acceptance  of  the  Clayton- 
Bulwer  convention.  Louis  Napoleon,  in  his  letter  to 
General  Forey,  said,  "It  is  not  the  interest  of  France 

i  that  America  should  grasp  the  whole  Gulf  of  Mex- 
ico, rule  thence  the  Antilles  as  well  as  South  Amer- 
ica, and  be  the  sole  dispenser  of  the  products  of 
the  New  World."  Could  words  more  clearly  sug- 
gest at  once  our  policy  and  our  danger  ?  The  efforts 
in  which  our  government  is  now  engaged,  through  its 


THE  INTER-OCEANIC  CANAL.  H3 

consular  and  diplomatic  agents,  to  extend  our  com- 
merce have  given  it  a  new  impetus.  With  the  at- 
tractions of  a  vast  commercial  prosperity  in  the  near 
future  beckoning  us  on,  we  cannot  look  with  indif- 
ference upon  the  attempts  of  a  great  power  to  gain 
control  of  the  only  water  communications  between 
our  Atlantic  and  Pacific  coasts.  The  Bulletin  du 
Canal  Inter oceanique,  the  official  organ  of  M.  de 
Lesseps,  portrays  in  glowing  terms  the  rich  commer- 
cial rewards  of  this  future  monument  to  French 
enterprise.  In  a  strain  more  inspiring  still  to  the 
imagination  of  the  patriotic  Frenchman  it  prophesies 
a  great  increase  of  the  "  prestige  "  of  France,  "  one  of 
the  best  conditions  of  its  commercial  growth."  Its 
martial  and  commercial  enthusiasm  intimately  blend- 
ing, it  points  to  the  fact  that  "England  gives  proof 
of  this,  and  her  constant  efforts  on  all  sides  to  main- 
tain her  prestige,  even  at  the  expense  of  painful  and 
costly  wars,  tell  us  plainly  enough  the  value  she 
attaches  to  it— she  whose  policy  is,  above  all  things, 
commercial."  Here  are  no  traces  of  that  fraternal, 
disinterested  spirit  by  which  the  distinguished  engi- 
neer of  the  Suez  Canal  would  persuade  us  he  is 
actuated  in  his  so-called  "international  enterprise." 
French  prestige  is  the  golden  fleece  which  lures  the 
modern  Jason  to  the  setting  sun,  albeit  through 
"painful  and  costly  wars."  Let  us  at  once  admire 
his  patriotic  zeal,  do  justice  to  his  genius,  and  be- 
8 


114  THE  INTER-OCEANIC  CANAL. 

ware  of  the  "painful  and  costly  wars."  In  1523 
Charles  V.  enjoined  Cortez  to  search  thoroughly  for 
the  "  strait  into  the  Indian  Ocean."  How  thoroughly 
the  great  explorer  appreciated  the  importance  of  the 
undertaking  is  shown  in  his  reply.  Referring  to 
the  anticipated  discovery,  he  says  : 

"It  would  render  the  King  of  Spain  master  of 
so  many  kingdoms  that  he  might  consider  himself 
Lord  of  the  World." 


APPENDIX. 


A  chronological  list  of  the  efforts  to  secure  inter- 
oceanic  transits  across  the  isthmus  or  the  conti- 
nent of  Central  America. 

1528.  Antonio  Galvao  proposed  a  scheme  to  Charles  V.  ftn" 
opening  up  a  route  between  the  two  oceans. 

1534.  Instructions  of  Charles  V.  to  Cortez  to  seek  such  a 
route. 

1551.  Gomara,  author  of  the  "History  of  the  Indies,"  pro- 
posed three  routes,  including  Nicaragua. 

1567.  Antonelli  sent  by  Philip  II.  to  explore  Nicaragua. 

1701.  Patterson's  "Four  Passes  "  published. 

1745.  Proposals  of  citizens  of  Oaxaca  for  opening  the  Te- 
huantepec  route. 

1774.  The  Tehuantepec  route  explored  by  Cramer. 

1780.  The  English  attempt  to  seize  the  Nicaragua  route  for 

England.     Nelson  serving  in  the  expedition. 

1781.  Exploration  of  the  San  Juan  River  (Nicaragua)  by 

Galisteo. 

1797.  Miranda's  proposals  to  William  Pitt. 
1804.  Humboldt's  nine  routes  proposed. 
1814.  A  decree  of  the  Spanish  Cortes  passed  for  opening  p. 

canal  across  Tehuantepec. 

115 


116  APPENDIX. 

1824.  Exploration  of  Tehuantepec  by  Orbegozo. 

1825.  Grant  by  the  Government  of  New  Granada  to  Baron 

de  Thierry  for  a  canal  at  Panama. 
1827.  Surveys  made  under  Bolivar. 
1830.  A  company  formed  in  Holland  to  open  the  Nicaragua 

route. 

1836.  Mission  of  Col.  Biddle  to  Central  America. 
1838.  Baily's  survey  of  Nicaragua. 

1842.  Garay's  survey  of  Tehuantepec. 

1843.  Garella's  survey  of  the  Panama  route. 

1845.  Proposals  made  to  Louis  Napoleon  by  Nicaragua  to 

open  a  canal. 

1849.  Dr.  Cullen's  explorations. 
1849.  A  canal  charter  to  the  American,  Atlantic  and  Pacific 

Canal  Company  of  New  York,  granted  by  Nicaragua. 
1851.  Col.  Childs's  survey  of  the  Nicaragua  route. 

1853.  Survey  of  the  Atrato  route  for  Mr.  Kelley. 

1854.  Survey  of  the  Honduras  route  by  Squier. 

1855.  Panama  Eailroad. 

1858.  Trau twine's  survey  of  the  Honduras  route. 

1858.  M.  Belly  obtained  a  grant  from  Nicaragua  for  canal. 

1858.  Survey  of  the  Atrato  route  by  Lieut.  Craven,  et  al. 

1861.  Bourdial's  expedition. 

1864.  Captain  Pirn's  expedition. 

1865.  Remy  de  Puydt's  expedition. 

1866.  Sacharma  and  Flachat's  expeditions. 

1868-9.  The  Ayon-Chevalier  contract  with  Nicaragua. 
1870-3.  Reports  by  Selfridge — Darien  route. 
1872.  Report    by  Captain    Shufeldt    on  the  Tehuantepec 
route. 


APPENDIX.  H7 

1872-3.  Report  by  Lull  on  the  Nicaragua  route  from  Grey- 
town  to  Brito. 

1872-3.  A  canal  contract  granted  by  Costa  Rica  to  Henry 
Meiggs  of  Peru. 

1875.  Re-survey  of  the  Selfridge  route  by  Lieut.  Collins. 

1875.  Reconnoissance  of  the  Panama  route  by  Com.  E.  P. 
Lull. 

1876-7.  The  French  reconnoissance  under  the  direction  of 
Lieut.  Bonaparte  Wyse. 

1879.  The  Paris  conference  under  M.  de  Lesseps. 


List  of  proposed  routes  for  canals  and  roads  across 
the  Central  American  isthmus,  as  given  in  the 
report  of  Admiral  Dams  to  Congress  in  1866. 

CANALS. 

1 1.  Tehuantepec,    by  the  Coatzacoalcos 

and  Chicapa. 
II 2.  Honduras. 

3.  R,  San  Carlos,  G.  de  Nicoya. 

4.  R.  Nino,  Tempisque,  G.  de  Nicoya. 

5.  R.  Sapoa  B.  Salinas. 

6.  San  Juan  del  Sur. 

7.  Brito. 

8.  R.  Tamarinda. 

9.  P.  Realejo. 
10.  B.  Fonseca. 

TTJ   p,,  (11.  Gorgona,  Panama. 

R.  Chagres.    -j  12  TrMdad)  Caymito. 

IV.. Panama  •{  13.  Navy  Bay,  R.  Chagres,  R,   Bonito, 

R.  Bernardo. 

14.  San  Bias,  R.  Chepo. 

15.  B.  Caledonia,  G.  San  Miguel. 

16.  Rs.    Arguia,    Paya,  Tuyra,  G.   San 

V..  .Darion-l  (  17.  R.  NagpTpi,  Cupica. 

Rio  Atrato.    \  18.  R.  Truando,  Kelly's  I. 

.  R.  Tuyra,  G.  Uraba  or  R.  Atrato. 


in... 


118  APPENDIX. 


ROADS. 

I.  —  Coatzacoalcos,  Tehuantepec. 
II.—  B.  Honduras  to  G.  of  Fonseca. 
III.  —  R.  San  Juan,  Nicaragua,  Managua,  G.  of  Fonseca. 
IV.—  Port  Liraon  to  Caldera,  Costa  Rica. 
V.  —  Chiriqui  inlet  to  Golfo  Dulce. 
VI.  —  Aspinwall,  Panama  (railroad  finished). 
VIL-Gorgon  B.,  Realejo.  )  N- 

VIII.—  Gorgon  B.,  San  Juan  del  Sur.  f 


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